LYNN — With its leaky brick walls and floor partly supported by wooden shoring beams, the Hollingsworth Street fire station is an example, said Fire Chief Stephen Archer, of how time is slowly running out for the city’s oldest firehouses.
“This is the kind of thing you see with time and age,” Archer said Monday as he pointed to a decaying iron column in the station’s basement. The column is one of several holding up the garage floor where a fire engine and ambulance park. Heavy wooden beams supplement support provided by the columns.
Hollingsworth Street, where the Fire Department’s Engine 1 and Medic 1 are based along with a half dozen firefighters, was built in 1912 — the year the Titanic sank. The Pine Hill and Tower Hill fire stations were built in the 19th century and the Fire Department must take care to assign its smallest fire engines to Pine Hill and Tower Hill with their garage bays built to house horse-pulled equipment.
A spending plan for city maintenance needs drawn up in 2015 included money to pay for a study looking at the feasibility of upgrading or building new fire stations. The study was never undertaken but city Inspectional Services Department Director Michael Donovan said a plan is now in place to issue a request for qualifications for architects interested in conducting the study.
“We will be proceeding in December. Hiring an architect generally takes 60 days,” Donovan said.
The study will take about three months to complete and Donovan and Archer said it will cast a wide net over the Fire Department and examine its needs and future challenges. Some of the questions the study will attempt to answer include: What is the best firefighting coverage plan for the city in terms of fire station locations? How should coverage be organized to provide optimum response to fires and other emergencies?
With those questions in mind, Archer said the study’s focus may include determining if the city needs a waterfront fire station. He pointed to prospective large-scale residential developments planned for the former General Electric gear plant site; Oxford Street and the Beacon Chevrolet and Porthole Restaurant sites.
“The study needs to look at all of that. We need to be looking to the future,” Archer said.
The age of existing stations points to the challenge the city faces in potentially building new ones: They need to serve the city for 75 or 100 years. Where to build a station is also a consideration and past talk of building one on Parkland Avenue has mainly centered around the availability of city-owned land along Parkland.
A new station — irrespective of its location — could cost $10 million and include three or four garage bays for trucks and room to provide firefighter training.
With its stamped tin ceilings and ornate but no longer used heating radiators, Hollingsworth Street station is a working fire station steeped in department history. Firefighters take time to patch walls, paint and make other improvements to keep their second homes livable and functional. The same work gets done across the city at the aging Tower Hill and Pine Hill stations.
“The guys take pride in taking care of them. A lot of maintenance is through sweat equity, but it’s just a tremendous amount of upkeep,” Archer said.