West Annandale Fire Station will be replaced
Fairfax County is tearing down and rebuilding the West Annandale Fire Station on Little River Turnpike.
During construction, the fire station will be temporarily housed in a former PNC Bank building nearby.
There was a presentation on the project at the March 22 meeting of the Mason District Land Use Committee.
The existing 7,390-square-foot fire station, built in 1970, is obsolete. It has just two apparatus bays, inadequate decontamination areas, and insufficient bunk rooms and bathrooms for female employees.
The new 13,748-square-foot-fire station, to be built on the same location at 8914 Little River Turnpike, will have three drive-through bays and a gender-neutral design. There will be 14 single bunk rooms for four volunteers and 10 Fairfax County employees.
The existing cell tower/flag pole will remain. The cell tower equipment will be relocated to the rear of the building.
The former bank building would be used for less than two years. The exterior would not be changed. Living spaces will be added inside, and a tent structure will be added to house two apparatus bays.
The design development process will start in June. The temporary fire station is scheduled to be completed in fall 2023. The new fire station would be completed in fall 2025.
The new station will have several energy-saving and sustainability elements, possibly including a geothermal heating and cooling system, solar power, electric vehicle charging stations, and an enhanced stormwater management facility.
The only access point to the existing station is from Little River Turnpike and the service road. That would not change.
Funding for the $15 million project comes from a public safety bond passed by voters in 2018.
Both the West Annandale Fire Station (#23) and Station #8 on Columbia Pike are operated by the Annandale Volunteer Fire Department.
I don’t understand how Volunteer Fire Departments work. Maybe someone can explain it.
Annandale VFD built, owns, operates and maintains and runs the fire stations. So is the $15 million dollars coming from the county or from donations?
Who pays for the fire trucks and ambulances and all that equipment? That’s like a half-a-million dollars up front (and maybe $10K/year maintenance) PER VEHICLE, isn’t it? I am under the impression it’s all just donations.
And are AFVD firemen and paramedics paid? It’s such dangerous work and requires lots of training and re-certification. How can they not get paid? How do they live?
How do the paramedics even pay for their medical training? That seems like asking a doctor to pay for medical school, and then somehow work for free the rest of their life? How do they obtain and maintain their professional certifications without ever being reimbursed? It’s not like a doctor or lawyer doing pro-bono work — the firemen are not working part-time at some other firehouse where they are getting paid.
Why does Fairfax County need to rely on volunteer fire and rescue personnel? In other parts of the country, those are all well-paid full-time staff? I’m glad and grateful that we have all these volunteers, but why do we need them?
The County does some administrative office work for the VFDs, and runs the 911 dispatch. And I assume the County indemnifies and insures the operations and employees. But basically everything else — including all the actual firefighting and rescue and hazmat and paramedics and sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms and everything is done by volunteers.
I don’t get it.