When eight firefighters, both men and women, are crammed into a three-room station during an overnight shift, it can get tricky. Sheets of cardboard and shower curtains separate sleeping spaces and a single room serves as the kitchen, living room and office.
But it still came as a surprise to La Jolla’s Station 13 Capt. Jim Palmer when he requested new screens and window locks from the city for the crowded building and was instead graced with a personal visit from Council President and District 1 Councilman Scott Peters.
“I talked to Peters and took him through the building,” Palmer said. “When we came out he said, ‘Gosh, that place is terrible.’ It really took off from there.”
Fire Station 13, which was built in the 1970s as a temporary unit on Nautilus Street, has been long overdue for renovations. After more than a year of fund-raising, the Sunrise Rotary Club of La Jolla finally broke ground Thursday, Jan. 25 for a new station.
Trip Bennett, a local architect and member of the rotary, was asked by Peters to design the new building. With a son who works as a Rancho Santa Fe firefighter, Bennett is aware of what a proper fire station facility should look like, he said.
He drew up plans that included an additional bathroom and ADA improvements to older facilities, a day room, an office, new kitchen cabinets, flooring, appliances, new heating and air conditioning systems, new electrical wiring and lighting and new doors and windows.
Bennett also organized fund-raising efforts, forming a 22-member rotary project committee to gather donations from community members and businesses.
Palmer, who has been fire captain in La Jolla for the last three years and a firefighter for 33 years, helped Bennett give presentations to several organizations about the status of the station and what improvements were needed. Firefighters also gave tours of the building to the general public.
More than 200 donors gave to the project, including one generous resident who contributed $50,000 and one who promised to throw in a dollar for every $2 raised. The project has generated approximately $375,000. An additional $50,000 is needed to finish exterior and interior details, Bennett said.
“My club embraced it and we took it on as a community project,” Bennett said. “We’re very proud of La Jolla and the number of people who contributed. It really is a project paid for by the citizens here, and that’s what we’ve wanted to maintain.”
Peters, who was present at the groundbreaking ceremony, called the project “one of the finest examples of community initiative and leadership the city has seen in decades,” according to Pam Hardy, director of communications for the council president.
“Trip Bennett and the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary deserve enormous credit for bringing this effort together,” Hardy said.
Bennett, on the other hand, gives all the credit to the community and said that he hopes people will continue to pitch in so his original vision for the building can be completed.
For information or to donate, call (858) 456-1220.