Mt. Prospect expanding fire station

When Mount Prospect Firefighter Jim Ingerbrigtsen returned to Fire Station No. 14 along Kensington Road after gassing up a Mount Prospect ambulance, he shimmied through the less than 2-foot space between the door and wall.

Shortly after, a fire engine returns to the fire house, which is too small for both vehicles to fit easily into a garage.

On a call, one of the vehicles must leave first because doors of each vehicle bang against each other if opened at the same time.

That's just some of the major drawbacks the station has, said Mount Prospect's Fire Chief Mike Figolah.

"It was never intended for full-time firefighters," Figolah said of the station, which was built for volunteer firefighters more than 40 years ago.

But that's going to change as the village moves forward with a new building next to this 5,000-square-foot station at 2000 Kensington Road.

A preliminary study by the architecture firm SRBL Architects estimated the village needs a new 20,000-square-foot station, costing about $8 million.

Figolah said the cost and size figures for the station are only preliminary since they were based on a needs assessment and not on architectural renderings.

The new station would be built right next to the old one, which would be torn down and the land would be used for drainage.

The land where the new station would be built is owned by the River Trails Park District which would lease the property to the village for $1 per year, Figolah said.

A baseball diamond would have to be relocated for the school district at River Trails Middle School, which would cost the village about $200,000.

The station serves as the village's third fire station, after stations at 112 E. Northwest Hwy. and 1601 W. Golf Road, which don't have the same space constraints, he said.

The village inherited the building from the River Forest Fire Protection District for volunteer fire fighters in 1971 when the village annexed the property from unincorporated Cook County.

Many requirements have changed since the building was constructed, Figolah said.

For instance, firefighters are now expected to exercise at least an hour a day when on shift, so weight machines are required. But Station No. 14 has no space for it, so weight machines are housed in the garage where fire trucks back up, emitting fumes.

There's also one bathroom and shower, even though there are male and female firefighters working in the building, he said.

The door leading from the garage to the kitchen area has no step up, instead it's flush with the floor, so diesel fire truck fumes, which stay low to the ground, are often swept into the kitchen area every time the door is opened.

Also, the fire department keeps getting busier, he said.

In the last 10 years, calls have increased from about 5,000 per year to about 6,000. That's expected to increase even more as aging Baby Boomers find themselves calling for ambulances when in health trouble, he said.

Now it's a matter of getting final schematics and estimates and then building it, he said.

If all goes as planned, the new station will be built as early as next summer, he said.

"The new station will serve us for the next 50 years," Figolah said.