Farmington Hills reopens fire headquarters with new emergency command center

By Julia Cardi, MediaNews Group

Farmington Hills has a renovated fireplace headquarters, with a brand new emergency operations heart to coordinate management throughout each pure and man-made disasters.

The undertaking, which metropolis officers celebrated Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, was funded with a $3 million state grant. Development began in March and resulted in September. The employees moved again to the headquarters at 31455 W. 11 Mile Rd. early October.

“It is an enormous achievement, that we got one thing that we have all the time needed and dreamed of, and the grant allowed us to make it occur,” mentioned Hearth Chief Jon Unruh. “And it is an unimaginable profit to the residents, from the standpoint that we are able to now work in a facility (to) handle incidents and handle pure and man-made disasters.”

Unruh mentioned the division had outgrown its earlier facility. The variety of employees working on the head workplace has doubled from seven to 14 since its development in 1997. Some staff shared cubicles, he mentioned, and the town additionally used the previous emergency operations area as a heating and cooling heart.

The renovations added greater than 30,000 sq. ft to the ability, together with places of work and the emergency operations heart.

Throughout development, headquarters employees quickly moved to “The Hawk,” the town’s neighborhood heart at 12 Mile. Farmington Hills has 5 fireplace stations, one in all which operates from its headquarters. Development didn’t have an effect on the hearth station.

“This can be a image of how Farmington Hills continues to evolve as we keep true to our neighborhood’s legacy of service, preparedness and care,” mentioned Mayor Theresa Wealthy.

The brand new emergency operations heart options desk area and wall-mounted screens situated across the room that may show data, reminiscent of metropolis knowledge maps, to assist incident response. Unruh mentioned climate disasters make up the vast majority of incidents that require a coordinated response from fireplace departments.

Farmington Hills now has its personal everlasting devoted emergency operations heart and is distinctive in Oakland County, Unruh mentioned, noting that almost all cities depend on the county’s command heart.

“It is really an instance of what can occur when native and state leaders work collectively for the neighborhood,” Metropolis Supervisor Gary Mekjian mentioned Wednesday.