Fire district campus construction moving along and expanding

Smoke and fire training? Flashing lights on the road? Offsite housing?

By Mark Reaman 

The new Crested Butte Fire Protection District (CBFPD) emergency services campus being constructed just north of Crested Butte will be getting bigger. The CBFPD board of directors last week decided to move ahead and fund, and ultimately build, a training facility on the site.

Located along Gothic Road near the CB Cemetery, the two primary safety campus buildings are going up efficiently even as work is reduced given the reality of the winter season. The fire station and Crested Butte search-and-rescue headquarters construction project is on time and on budget at the moment, so district officials conveyed that they are comfortable allocating some of the bond money to build a training facility. 

Given that, the CBFPD board approved moving forward with a fire training building on the site at its December 10 meeting. That training facility could involve actual controlled burns to train firefighters. Meanwhile, department officials are looking at how best to limit their long vehicles from having to back into the fire hall which could at times stop traffic on Gothic Road. 

“Overall, we are pleased with the development progress, however, construction is slowing down a bit with winter weather conditions,” said CBFPD CEO Sean Caffrey. “We are on budget at this point with limited use of budgeted contingency funds. As the winter continues you can expect the buildings to look more and more complete from the outside as the work shifts to the inside. Interior work including framing, mechanical systems and electrical work will continue with doors, windows and walls and interior finishes expected to be underway by the late spring and summer.” 

The campus site is about 7.3 acres and encompasses both sides of the Slate River on the east side of Gothic Road. 

It includes the entire parcel previously owned by the Spann ranching family, from whom the district purchased the property after failing to reach an agreement with the town for free land in the newly annexed Slate River subdivision.

“Following a positive report about the current status of the project, the board decided to proceed with releasing $950,000 in budgeted contingency funds for the training building,” Caffrey said following the board meeting. “The board felt this was consistent with the objectives of our bond measure passed in 2021 and that completing a training building as part of the main construction of the site would be the most economical approach. We are very excited at this opportunity as we have a limited ability to conduct realistic firefighter training without traveling out of the district and considering our low incidence of actual fires. $950,000 is less than half of our remaining contingency funds for the project.” 

There are several details to work through before the district can proceed with the training building, including detailed engineering of the location, site preparation, purchase and erection of the training building itself, and the installation of training props. Caffrey said however, that the training facility had been previously included in the zoning of the building in its land use change that was approved by the county in 2023.  

What it will mean: sometimes some smoke and some fire

“We plan to develop some public education and solicit feedback on how we will use the training building including the associated impacts,” Caffrey promised. “There are a lot of details there. However, the highlights are that the vast majority of live fire training will utilize propane fed burn props and artificial mineral oil-based smoke, as this is the most efficient and safest way to conduct fire training with minimal environmental impact. We will also be engineering our water management plan to make sure water used during training does not adversely impact the site or the nearby river. 

“I should further note that we do not have any firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in our inventory and do not intend to train with any,” Caffrey continued. “Furthermore, we anticipate a space to conduct training with what we refer to as “ordinary combustibles” or Class A fuels. Class A training has stringent requirements and is conducted by burning hay or untreated wood products which are usually shipping pallets. The propane props are considered Class B or liquid fueled.” 

The building will also provide many other training aspects such as ladder training, forcible entry, ventilation training, search procedures, confined space rescue, rope rescue and utility control. Many of these ancillary features will also support law enforcement and mountain rescue training. 

Beep, beep, beep

Another topic of discussion is the proximity of the station to the highway and what that might mean when trucks leave and return from emergency calls. The bays are being built to allow emergency vehicles to drive through the building. But Caffrey said some stacking could occur and that could occasionally require trucks to back into a bay. Given their size, that might involve a stoppage of traffic on Gothic Road. 

“The layout of the site is oriented specifically to allow for drive-through access of both the fire station and the CBSAR building. For CBSAR in particular, they are usually pulling trailers with snowmobiles or ATVs so getting them drive-through access was a key design requirement. For the fire headquarters we expect that the primary fire truck as well as the primary ambulance will have drive-through access.” 

Caffrey said given the number of emergency vehicles, there will be some vehicle stacking in two of the bays which will have trucks coming out the north entrance from time to time. “I expect there will also be times when we do back in from Gothic Road,” he said. “To facilitate egress and ingress from the county road we have collaborated with County Public Works on the best approach and they have recommended flashing signs on the side of the road in each direction that we will be able to activate from the vehicles when departing and returning to the front of the station. When that is necessary the vehicles will also use their own warning lights as well.”

Caffrey said that the building design allowed 50 feet of space in front of the garage doors to the edge of the road in front of the fire station doors so the smaller vehicles will have some ability to back in without being in the road.

Rest of the development

As for workforce housing units that were part of the original bond proposal approved by voters, Caffrey said progress is being made. “We are in the final stages of completing plans for a duplex on one of our Larkspur parcels that will be bond-funded. We expect those plans will be finalized shortly and we will begin the approval processes with the HOA and the county,” he explained. “If all goes well, we can start construction next year. Construction on our other Larkspur parcel and our Deer Creek Circle parcel in Mt. CB remain to be determined as far as timeline.”

The development plan calls for a 22,500-square-foot fire station headquarters along with a 6,000-square-foot search-and-rescue (CBSAR) building, the training facility and housing. According to Caffrey, the amount of bonds approved and issued by the CBFPD in January of 2022 was $25,315,000. “The bonds were offered with an interest rate premium yielding a total of $30,270,550 in available funds. The budgeted construction costs for the emergency services campus, excluding land, pre-construction costs, off-site housing, contingency, furniture and equipment is $24.9 million. The total contingency budget is $2.7 million, which we have spent about $400,000 of so far,” he explained.

Finish grading and landscaping will occur next summer. Significant work is underway now to finalize interior finishes, furniture and appliances. Heating and cooling for interior spaces will be done with a variable-refrigerant flow (VRF) air-source electric heat pump system with supplemental natural gas heat for the garage spaces. Significant solar generation is also planned for both buildings. Meeting rooms available for use by the public will be included in both primary buildings and a public sidewalk will be built along Gothic Road for eventual connectivity into Crested Butte. 

The expectation is that the campus buildings will be completed and ready to occupy by late 2025 or early 2026.