A giant crane lifts panels for the walls of the new Ventnor firehouse on Wellington Avenue.
VENTNOR – It won’t take long – about a week – to construct the shell of a building that will house the Ventnor City Firehouse No. 2 on Wellington Avenue.
On Friday, Nov. 15, a huge crane was lifting pairs of concrete panels shipped by truck from the factory in Millville to erect the outside walls of the 30-foot tall structure.
Fire Chief Michael Cahill stood across the street taking cell phone videos to document the process.
“It’s been a very good week for the Ventnor City Fire Department,” he said. “We are looking forward to a bright future in this building.”
Construction to replace the deteriorated firehouse, which was originally built in 1972 as a temporary structure, started on Wednesday, with a move-in date in about six months, Cahill said.
“We’ll be open for business in May,” he said.
The project is on-time and on-budget, he said.
Construction of the exterior of the building will go very quickly and likely be completed by next Friday, he said.
“On Monday, they will weld the brackets to accept the interior beams,” he said.
The panels, which are 12 feet wide and 22-32 feet tall, weigh 18,000 pounds. They are a foot thick, with hard core insulation layered between 4-inch thick layers of color-coated exterior and interior concrete.
The new structure will be built to FEMA standards for critical infrastructure and help reduce the cost of fire insurance for local homeowners.
Fabbri Builders, Inc. of Vineland was awarded a $3.17 million contract to build the firehouse, which Cahill said will reflect the historic nature of Ventnor.
A seven-member crew is building the exterior walls.
The department has set up temporary lodging, including a heated tent for apparatus and equipment and a trailer for firefighters just a few blocks away.
The new concrete structure will be built to withstand a 500-year storm and be able to house firefighters and the public on the second floor of the building during major storms.
Design for new Fire Station No. 2 under construction on Wellington Avenue.
When completed, the structure will stand for 100 years, Cahill said.
The cost of construction, which Cahill called “structurally robust,” includes a full-service kitchen, dormitory and training rooms on the second floor. Furnishings will be funded under a separate line item set aside for the project.
“The new firehouse will be a major improvement, make our equipment last a lot longer and the city will save on the cost of vehicle maintenance,” Cahill said. “We’ll be going from an outhouse to a penthouse.”
Cahill said having a firehouse in the Ventnor Heights section is a must because the neighborhood is separated from the rest of the city by the inland waterway and the aging Dorset Avenue bridge, which sometimes gets stuck in the open position or is often closed due to street flooding.
Cahill also reported that the department recently received two grants – $20,000 from FEMA to construct an on-site decontamination unit, and $12,000 from the Fire Department of New York DiBernardo Memorial Foundation to purchase bail-out equipment.
Cahill said the only Ventnor firefighter to die in the line of duty in Ventnor would have been saved if the department had bail-out equipment. The foundation will fund an additional $12,000 next year, he said.
