WESTMINSTER : Larger Quarters for Fire Team Planned

Five years after the city’s fire prevention team moved to a “temporary” office to avoid overcrowding at department headquarters, the City Council has requested construction blueprints for a project to double the size of the main office.

The two-story expansion project would be built above an existing parking lot and connect with the headquarters, adding 4,100 square feet to the headquarters at 7351 Westminster Blvd., Fire Chief D’Wayne Scott said.

The estimated cost of the project, which would be funded with city Redevelopment Agency money, is $570,000. The construction drawings will be done by the Huntington Beach-based architectural firm of Anthony & Langford.

The fire prevention staff of 12 works out of the city’s community services office at 8200 Westminster Blvd., sharing 1,200 square feet of office space. The team moved out of the headquarters when the Fire Department added hazardous materials personnel.

Scott said the move “was designed at that time to be a temporary measure.”

“We could live with that for one year or two, but now it’s five and there’re problems with record keeping, not enough desk . . . space,” he said. “Storage space amounts to what you can shove into your desk and into two file cabinets. It’s people on top of people. It’s extremely tight in every one of those cubicles.”

As a result, interviews necessary for arson investigations are difficult because there’s no “private atmosphere whatsoever” in which to conduct them, he said.

The expansion project would include 3,000 square feet of office space “that we feel would handle present needs as well as the future,” Scott said. The addition would almost double the existing amount of office space.

Also under the plan, fire sprinklers will be installed at department headquarters. Scott said that laws passed since the headquarters was constructed require buildings of more than 5,000 square feet to install them.

“We have to clean up our own back yard,” he added.

Although the cost estimate issued last year for the project was $370,000, more detailed study of the proposal suggests it could cost as much as $570,000, Cook said. Still, he added that modifications to the suggested floor plan could reduce the cost “a great deal.”

The Redevelopment Agency will pay for the project with “funds that they are required to spend back into the community,” Cook said. “This building is in a redevelopment area, and this is part of the taxpayers’ money coming back to benefit the area.”

The project would take about one year to complete after construction begins, he said.