Burbank to Upgrade Fire Stations : $8.5-Million Project Envisions New Facilities, Renovations

Antiquated Burbank fire stations, some of which are too small to house heavily equipped fire trucks, are due for an $8.5-million face lift.

At least two of the city’s six stations will be torn down and relocated, and the other four stations and a practice drill tower will undergo extensive renovations. The citywide project could take as long as four years, Fire Chief Curtis V. Reynolds said Wednesday.

Reynolds and City Manager Bud Ovrom have long criticized the deterioration of the stations. The newest station was built in 1958, the oldest in 1944. None of the stations has had significant improvements or renovations since construction.

“There’s a tremendous backlog to be dealt with because previous administrations have not done their fair share in keeping the city buildings in shape,” Ovrom said. “We should have been spending $100,000 to $200,000 each year to upgrade our stations, but nothing has been done.”

Mayor Mary Lou Howard, who has been on the City Council since 1979 and served a one-year term as mayor in 1982, agreed with Ovrom. “Keeping the stations in shape was never a high priority for the city,” she said.

New fire trucks with high ladders were found to be too large to fit inside a station in the city’s Media District, home to several motion picture and television studios. The trucks had to be housed across town in the department’s headquarters near City Hall.

‘It’s Just Ludicrous . . . ‘

“It’s just ludicrous that we have to put the engines where they fit, and not where they belong,” Ovrom said.

Housing the engines across the city adds an extra one to two minutes in response time to fires in the Media District, Reynolds said. “Right now, there’s a range of four to five minutes, which we would like to get to three to four minutes,” he said.

Conditions for firemen housed at the station have also been substandard, officials said. The stations were built in an open dormitory style, “which does not allow for any privacy at all,” Reynolds said. “We’re in the process of recruiting female firefighters, so we have to do something about that.”

Reynolds said air conditioning and heating in the stations are poor and that showers and toilets are inadequate.

Using money raised from the sale of bonds issued by City Council last year, Reynolds and other officials are preparing proposals for the renovations, which he said would make the stations “serviceable and comfortable but not ostentatious.” Construction and renovation could start by late summer.

The station in the Media District, which is on Hollywood Way between Verdugo and Clark Avenues, will be torn down and rebuilt on a nearby site yet to be determined, he said. One other station, now at Buena Vista Street and San Fernando Road, will also be relocated.