FARGO (KFGO) – Fargo Fire Station No. 2 on 25th Street S. is getting an addition to its north side.
About two-thirds of the new space will be a fitness room and one-third will be for gear storage.
When the fitness equipment is in the same space as the fire truck, it absorbs chemicals from exhaust which is then passed to the firefighters who use the equipment. Binfet said moving the fitness equipment will protect firefighters from those chemicals.
As for the gear, it is washed in an extractor when firefighters come back from the field, but even after washing, it continues to give off gas from chemicals they encountered.
Until now, the fitness equipment and gear was stored in the same area as the fire trucks.
Binfet said the new addition is all about health and safety.
“As there’s more research done on cancer, health, firefighter health and safety just in general, we know that gear offgasses after it’s hanging… even after it’s washed, that gear continues to offgas,” Binfet said.
Binfet said the new room the gear will be stored in will be ventilated to allow it to offgas out of the station.
The new addition will cost around $330,000 and should be completed by July.
