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ARCHITECTURE
INTERIOR DESIGN
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Fire and EMS Station Design: Making Accommodations for First
Responders in a Pandemic
by Paul Andrew Sgroi, AIA, LEED AP | May 2020
Heroism in the fire and life safety industry is an invisible carcinogenic blanket. Hot Zone
not uncommon. In light of the coronavirus design focused our attention on the need to
pandemic, we are reminded of the tremendous separate contaminated zones from clean zones.
sacrifices these men and women endure in The introduction of transition zones was one
order to protect and serve. Now, two months design solution that provided sensible means
into the outbreak in the U.S., industries are to separate the apparatus bay entry and exit
looking to adapt to the new realities this public points from the “living” areas common to fire
health crisis has created. As designers, we must and EMS stations.
consider the effects these new realities will
have on the fire station in a post-Covid world.
“The separation between
In 2014, the concept of Hot Zone design the operations side and
for fire stations was presented to the design
industry with a fiery impact. Firefighters and the administration side is
others on the scene were returning to their
vehicles, stations, and homes cloaked with a real positive.”
BERNARDON | Fire and EMS Station Design: Making Accommodations for First Responders in a Pandemic Page 1
