By Cameron Levasseur
Bangor Daily News
CARIBOU, Maine — When it was built in 1978, no sprinkler system was installed in the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department. At some point in the five decades that have followed, the building’s fire alarm broke, and the parts are too antiquated to repair it.
Those fire safety flaws and a handful of other issues with the station are finally set to be addressed in 2026, as the city moves forward with an estimated $2.5 million renovation of the building and the next-door Lion’s Club , where some fire department facilities will be located.
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“Everybody has the thought, ‘Well, it’s a fire station. You don’t need a sprinkler system.’ But you actually do,” Fire Chief Brian Lajoie said Wednesday.
Work on the upgrades is expected to begin less than a year after the city abandoned plans originally designed to construct a new public safety building and put Caribou’s police and fire departments under one roof.
The fire department had long been axed from that proposal amid soaring cost estimates that ultimately doomed the project, but the issues that plague its building are still prevalent.
Lajoie’s office, where he spoke to a reporter for this story, is on the bottom floor of the department, next to its apparatus bay and the room that houses its gear washer and extractor. That area is considered a red zone, or within the decontamination area of the station where cancer-causing agents and other biohazards on firefighter gear are brought into the building after fires.
“That means we have all those harmful chemicals floating in the air,” Lajoie said.
His office, as well as the office of an administrative assistant, will move out of the station and into the Lions Club building. The club disbanded several years ago.
Building plans presented by the city show the fire department will transform the first floor of the building, adding a third office for administrative work, a conference room, a kitchenette, a large classroom/training area and a new fitness center.
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The department’s current fitness center is a roughly 10-foot by 10-foot space that will be overtaken by renovations to the dormitory area on the first floor of the station.
The dormitory upgrades are part quality of life, part to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. They will expand the residential capacity to 21 beds and use smaller walls to create “personal bedroom” spaces for firefighters.
The locker room and bathroom area of the station will also be revamped to create more space and to better accommodate women by constructing individual rooms with toilets and showers.
“That stuff hasn’t been upgraded since the building’s been built, so it’s in dire need of renovation for sure,” Lajoie said. “I’ve been here for 33 years and nothing really has changed upstairs, except for maybe a little bit of furniture.”
The department currently employs one female firefighter out of a full-time staff of 15 — including Lajoie and the administrative assistant. With a full staff, it would have 17 employees, rotating three, five-person crews. It’s short two firefighters presently, meaning two crews operate with four members.
But the expanded dormitory space will allow for future staff expansion, Lajoie said, and he’s hoping to fill the vacant positions following negotiations between the fire department’s union and the city, which are working toward developing a new crew schedule.
The improvements will also update the station’s kitchen, move a personal laundry area out of the red zone and replace an outdated ventilation system.
In its regular monthly meeting Monday, the Caribou City Council unanimously approved design development documents laying out the renovations.
But before ultimately voting to approve, Councilor Dan Bagley suggested tabling the decision until after the council had completed negotiations with the union. He was met with resounding dissent from the rest of the council.
The project will now proceed to the construction documents phase, after which it can be put out to bid. If the process continues to go smoothly, Lajoie said he tentatively expects construction to start in early May or June.
A budget document for the project published by the city includes a cost estimate to expedite the construction process that assumes a spring start date.
The renovations will be funded out of a pool that includes $1,35 million in congressionally directed spending, $234,340 from Caribou’s federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, $106,643 from a 2022 County ARPA grant, and $835,000 from the city’s 2022 capital improvement budget, City Manager Penny Thompson said in 2024 after the council approved releasing a request for proposals for the design of the project.
“We’re excited for the nice refreshment of the fire station and the Lions Club,” said Amanda Jandreau, project manager for architecture and engineering firm Harriman and Caribou’s former planning board chair.
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Does your firehouse have a fire alarm system and sprinklers? If not, why?
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