Better long-term protection was the recurring theme at the Menan Fire Station grand opening Aug. 23 in Menan, Idaho.
“I want to say how proud I am of this building. She’s an unconventional building, but she’s built for a hundred years. I’d like to see my grandkids see this building still standing,” said Menan mayor Tad Haight. “There’s room for training here, there’s room for rest, there’s room for expansion, and I think it’s an investment in the future.”
Central Fire District contracted with Idaho Falls-based Dome Technology to build the station, a 11,300-square-foot structure with a dome roof system 100 feet in diameter built upon a 17-foot CMU stem wall.
The station includes five bays for trucks and a mezzanine for future expansion. The building’s low-profile post-tension concrete dome shell yields energy efficiency and moderates interior temps. Domes are built truss free, providing ample open spaces inside for community events and flexibility as station needs change.
“(This station) means that we are able to grow the community; we are able to support the community. We’re able to provide better services to the residents of Jefferson County that live in Central Fire District, we can back up our other sister stations, and we can also provide for emergency housing here if we have a disaster here—that was one of the main reasons that we built this type of dome,” station captain Mitch Bingham said.
The station will also protect equipment during natural disasters. In traditional construction, roof systems can collapse during extreme weather or seismic events. If equipment is trapped under the roof, volunteers aren’t able to assist the community as needed. “In this particular instance, that’s not going to happen. The roof will not collapse in any kind of natural disaster,” said Dome Technology project manager Daren Wheeler.
Dome Technology constructs architectural buildings and storm shelters around the world and is certified with the National Storm Shelter Association. Each project is customized to a customer’s needs and specifications.
To learn more about this building, see our Menan Fire Station project summary.
