If you could design the perfect fire station from scratch, what would it look like?
This week on The Cool Fireman Podcast, Matt, Brian, and Adam are designing their dream firehouse—and quickly realize there’s a lot more to fire station design than apparatus bays and a kitchen table.
Should administrative offices be separated from firefighter living quarters? Should every shift have its own refrigerator? Individual bunk rooms or good old-fashioned gen pop? How many bathrooms does a firehouse actually need? And perhaps the most important question of the episode: Is it acceptable to destroy the bathroom right before the crew brushes their teeth?
Yeah…we went there.
The guys also talk about designing modern fire stations for firefighter health, privacy, staffing, decontamination, female firefighters, hurricane upstaffing, turnout times, fitness rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, bunk rooms, and the traditions that make a firehouse feel like a firehouse.
We also highlight Paddling for Pennies, answer listener questions about firefighter interviews and getting hired, and revisit the conversation with Tonya Herbert about PAH exposure and firefighter cancer prevention—including why the engineer operating the pump may be exposed to more contaminants than many firefighters realize.
Some traditions are worth protecting. Others might be worth leaving in the 1970s.
What would YOUR perfect fire station have?
Join the conversation and follow The Cool Fireman Podcast wherever you listen.
🔥 Firefighter culture
🔥 Fire station design
🔥 Firefighter health & cancer prevention
🔥 Firefighter career advice
🔥 Firehouse traditions
🔥 And plenty of completely unnecessary bathroom discussion
