Fire Station 1
Oklahoma City Fire Department Station 1 - September 4th, 2024, Brandon Tellez
Written for Shoot the Breeze Magazine: Volume 00 - July 2024
A portion of every purchase you make in Oklahoma City goes to funding Public Safety. “Expended only for the purposes of providing... (police, fire fighting, or fire-rescue) …services, facilities, and equipment” (Fire Department Fiscal Year 22-23 Appropriations & Fire Sales Tax Expenditures & Projects). In the fiscal year of 2022-2023, $49.4 million went towards funding the Oklahoma City Fire Department from this sales tax. The Oklahoma City Fire Department highlights what it looks like when the city takes care of their people, an example being their ‘OKCFD Station Tours’ series on their YouTube channel. Fire Station 1 is the biggest and most complex station in Oklahoma City. Fire Station 1 is also home to the most advanced technology of the stations in the city. Two features of this station stand out to me, an advanced alarm system within the station, and new autonomous drone technology. The money that goes towards the Fire Department goes towards more than just resources to fight fires, it also goes towards research and advancing technology to keep people safe. Focus on research and studying how fire fighters operate led to upgrading the sleeping areas in Fire Station 1. Sleep is something a lot of people take for granted, and it’s extremely important when your job involves saving lives. A recent study showed fire fighter injuries to be significantly higher with lack of sleep and or poor-quality sleep. Upgrading from one single bedroom to specific bedrooms per engine, as well as sound proofing were easy steps in the right direction. The real upgrades came with a new alarm system, allowing crews to be woken up only if they were needed on a call. I couldn’t imagine having every single fire fighter woken up for every single call, every single night. This idea of stepping back and seeing the bigger picture of how things operate, also translated into advanced equipment to use in the field. Fotokite is a company that makes autonomous tethered drones specifically for public safety teams, including autonomous flying in rough weather and thermal cameras. Investment in advanced technologies like these drones to fight fires more efficiently, and systems to keep fire fighters safer, really highlight the City of Oklahoma City, and the Oklahoma City Fire Department care for their people.
