Allan Appel Photo
Firefighter and painter Maldonado.
The bright new yellow lines you’ll see in front of the Grand Avenue fire headquarters are not just for a show of good housekeeping.
Tuesday afternoon a crew led by Firefighter Ryan Haigh was busy retouching the eight lines, which mark entry lanes into and out of the fire house on Grand Avenue at Olive Street.
Haigh with the tape.
The firehouse, built in 1961, houses Engine Four, Truck One and Car 32.
That Car 32 is there because the building, a stalwart “brutalist” construction from 1961, also serves as the headquarters for high-ranking officers in the department.
Haigh, along with Firefighters Mark Misbach and Stephen Maldonado, first lay down blue tape to give a sharp edge to each line.
Then, using a long pole with a perfectly sized brush at the end, or regular hand brush, they began to paint the fading lines with bright new yellow that will travel from the edge of the sidewalk all the way into the station where the fire vehicles are parked.
The work is “routine maintenance,” said Acting Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli, “like the upkeep you would do in your own house.”
It wasn’t party of a broader plan for long-delayed renovations at rundown firehouses around town, such as recent improvements at the Goffe Street firehouse. Marcarelli said next up is a new roof at the firehouse at 350 Whitney Ave. and a complete rebuilding of the firehouse on Fountain Avenue.
Still routine maintenance matters, too.
“My lieutenant decided it’s [the array of markings] a little worn out,” said Haigh, an eight-year veteran of the department of the work he was leading at the Grand Avenue firehouse.
Misbach and Maldonado.
So the crew procured the supplies from the city and set to work Tuesday.
The point was not to pretty up the lines but to make it “so you can see the lines clear when you back up the apparatus,” Haigh said.
“We got to make sure the firehouse looks good, so we can feel good, so we can do the best job we can,” said Misbach, who has been a firefighter for two years.
Marcarelli seconded that: The firefighters assigned to a house are “responsible for a certain amount of upkeep. It shows a level of pride in places they work. Some show more than others.”
Scheduling of the work had nothing to do with call volume, Haigh added. “It’s just something that needs to get done and we’re eager to do it,” he said.