Alten Construction breaks ground on Fire Station 70

SAN PABLO, Calif. - Aug. 22, 2019 - PRLog -- Alten Construction, a full-service San Francisco Bay Area commercial construction company, recently broke ground on Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (Con Fire) Station 70.

The new $9.778 million fire station will be named the Captain Matthew Burton and Engineer Scott Desmond Memorial Station in honor of the two fallen Con Fire firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice on July 21, 2007 while attempting to rescue two elderly residents trapped in a burning home on nearby Michelle Drive. Once complete, the new station will serve as a standing memorial to their sacrifice.

Located at 1800 23rd St. in San Pablo, the new station will replace the temporary Fire Station 70 quarters, which have been in service at 13928 San Pablo Avenue since shortly after the permanent station was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

"Constructing this state-of-the-art fire station will better support our firefighters, allow for better quality of life, health and training, as well as community interaction, both in the immediate area of Station 70 and the surrounding communities," said Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Fire Chief Lewis Broschard. "Since soon after the original facility was damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, our firefighters have been working and living in modular structures that long ago outlived their useful lifespans. We are appreciative of the opportunity to work collaboratively with Alten Construction on this project that will rectify this challenging situation."

The new 15,000-square-foot two-story fire station will be built to modern earthquake standards to ensure its availability for facilitating disaster preparedness and response. The new structure will feature three state-of-the-art apparatus bays, a kitchen, functional dorm rooms, offices and restrooms, as well as rooms for fitness, dining, decontamination and storage. The space will also allow for considerable indoor and outdoor training opportunities, including ladder work, rappelling and indoor all-weather training.

Fire Station 70 also will include a two-stop elevator, emergency generator and fuel tank and a photovoltaic roof system. Designed to keep carcinogens away from the firefighters, the station also will include high-tech gross decontamination showers, water extractors for protective gear cleaning, a decontamination sauna and modern systems for extraction of diesel exhaust particulates.

Alten Construction (https://www.altenconstruction.com/) broke ground on the fire station in April 2019 and received its notice to proceed in May 2019. The project will take roughly 17 months to complete and is expected to be finished in late November 2020.

Fire Station 70 is designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design's (LEED) Silver equivalency per Contra Costa County's standard for public buildings.