Representatives on behalf of the V.I. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (VIFEMS) went before the St. Croix Committee of the Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Commission (CZM) for the reconstruction of the Renceliar I. Gibbs Fire Station (CZM0012-24) and the construction of an internal safe room on Tuesday, via Microsoft Teams.
The project is located at #1 Cotton Valley, Christiansted, St. Croix.
John Woods from Jaredian Design Group and Damian Cartwright from Build Tec, LLC represented the plans for the reconstruction.
The fire station that already exists has been approved by FEMA for a functional replacement with additional funds to construct a safe room. The safe room will be about 7,400 feet, and the facility will contain administrative services and dorms and include an entry area where emergency vehicles can drive in and out of the facility. There will also be an area where emergency vehicles can be housed, storage areas, a washer and dryer area, and more.
There’s also a west elevation with two garage doors.
“This fire station will be constructed while the existing fire station is occupied so we had to place it in a location where it will not interfere with the existing structure,” said Woods.
The new building will fall to the northwest of the existing structure between the dumpsite and the existing structure. “Once that operation is complete then we will be able to demolish the existing structure in front and turn into the parking area for the trucks to move in out of the facility,” said Cartwright. The demolition plan will not occur until the new building is constructed.
Cartwright said that given the heavy vehicular traffic, they decided to do everything in concrete instead of asphalt. “When we looked at the flood plains directly to the site it actually elevated the building about 5 feet,” said Cartwright.
“It is imperative that this is accessible through any emergency and storm event,” he said.
During the questions portion of the meeting, multiple members were concerned about the station being previously flooded with heavy rains during a downpour in May. Their concern is that in the event of a flood, will the emergency vehicles be able to respond if needed. Although members of the V.IFEMS were not immediately available at the beginning of the presentation due to a conflict in schedule, the V.I. Fire Services Director Antonio Stevens was able to join and assured that he would investigate the matter.
Another one of the questions was concerns about the waste facility located near the fire station, to which Stevens said that there are pest control services in place and there is no concern for the station to be located closer to the waste facility.
