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Tinker firefighters save millions with DIY station

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  • By John Parker
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Tinker Air Force Base officials once estimated spending up to $20 million to build a new fire station. Instead, Fire Station 4 opened this month with a preliminary price tag of about $150,000.

The incredible savings came about as a result of teamwork, some luck with a suitable building becoming available and 85 members of the local firefighters union grabbing hammers, cutting drywall and building their own station.

"Station 4 is a shining example of what volunteerism can do in lean times," said Col. Christopher Azzano, 72nd Air Base Wing and Tinker installation commander. "Our Tinker firefighters possessed the ability, capacity and desire to do this for Team Tinker and we are all better off as a result."

Tinker's first west-side firehouse opened this month with the news that it would cut average response times to base housing in half - a potentially life-saving improvement.
At the same time, the 13,634-square-foot station slashed millions of dollars in anticipated spending in the way it came about, officials said.

Chief Terry Ford, head of Tinker AFB Fire and Emergency Services, said the division had been waiting roughly five years for movement on a $20 million budget request for a new fire station.

Alternatively, renovating an existing building on base into a fire station was estimated to cost about $1.5 million, Chief Ford said. Neither amount was likely to come through anytime soon with the Air Force's tight funding for military construction projects, the chief said.

Last September, however, the 3rd Combat Communications Group was inactivated, leaving behind more than a dozen unoccupied buildings.

Working with Civil Engineering, Tinker Support Services and the 72nd Air Base Wing, it was determined that a self-help approach and some budget flexibility might produce a fire station in the "3rd Herd's" former Bldg. 7017. The building already featured two cavernous engine bays with rolling garage doors.

It was also proposed that the project would save a large amount of money if the firefighters themselves volunteered to renovate the south half of the building, while part of the 72nd Security Forces Squadron moved into the north half.

Fire Capt. Kevin B. Smith, president of the Local F 211, International Association of Fire Fighters, introduced the proposal at a union meeting.

"It was 100 percent volunteering from our guys," Capt. Smith said. "We're lucky because in our line of work, almost everybody has something they do on days off and most are in construction trades - tile setters, electricians, plumbers, dry wall."

From December to May, union members renovated the inside of the building by walling off hallways, installing showers, ripping out flooring and cutting trenches for new water lines. They converted offices to bunk rooms and walled off an area of the main kitchen/training room for an exercise gym.

Capt. Smith acted as the unofficial "general contractor," with help from firefighters Jody Chase and Scott Lair. Lair worked up the construction plans on design software.
The 72nd Civil Engineer Directorate and Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command A7C0X helped finance buying new equipment, such as gear lockers for the station bays and refurbishing an unused fire engine. There's also room now for equipment and supplies that had been stored in two or more buildings in the past.

Station 4 got its first test at faster response times in January, while still under renovation. A small fire broke out in a dorm room. An engine at the station was there in only 3 minutes, Chief Ford said. Response times to west-side housing had been as high as 12 to 15 minutes, the chief said.

"This has just been a really positive thing for everybody," Chief Ford said. "And the community really benefits."

Carmie Ashley, portfolio optimization chief with the 72nd Civil Engineering Directorate, called the project a "tremendous benefit for the base." Civil engineering works with base units on self-help projects from painting an office to projects like Station 4 based upon a units capability.

To start a project or to get advice, Ashley said units can contact the Civil Engineering service desk and fill out an AF Form 332.