After 40 years of an honorable career, the Albany Fire Station, at the corner of San Pablo and Buchanan, needs major revamping to match emergency, safety and disaster operation standards. The old fire station will shut down next year for at least 18 months, and the firefighters will move somewhere else.

But it is still uncertain what will happen while they are gone. The firefighters hope to see a new Emergency Operations Center, fully equipped to deal with disaster emergencies. But it is also possible the fire station will receive only earthquake retrofitting and partial remodeling of the dorms and shops. This decision rests with the outcome of one item on the November ballot: Albany’s Measure C.

Measure C is a $5 million bond proposal that would pay for the expansion of the fire station, the construction of an Emergency Operations Center between the police and fire stations, and a new training center for both firefighters and police. The measure would add money to an existing $6.5 million budget from another bond, Measure F, which passed in 2002. Measure F provides funds for the earthquake retrofitting, so whether people will vote for ‘C’ or not, the firefighters will be moving.

But if Albany voters approve ‘C’, the time required to retrofit the fire station can also be used to build all those expansions and enhancement work the firefighters say their station needs.

“It would be a shame if the city has to go through all these expenses, and then only half of the job can be done,” said Albany Fire Captain Dustyn Wiggins, who has served the city for 20 years. City administrator Elizabeth Pollard says she shares that view. “It makes sense to do it all at the same time,” she said. “It’s more cost effective.”

Starting next year, the Measure F budget will be used to enhance and remodel the structural components of the station by installing steel bars and other retrofit material, with high priority for the “apparatus floor,” the garage where the firefighters’ vehicles are usually parked. “If on a major disaster the apparatus falls while the engines are parked in there, the firefighters are not going anywhere,” Wiggins said.

But although the seismic retrofit will help, Wiggins said, Albany needs a real Emergency Operations Center based in the fire headquarters, to be able to react quickly and efficiently in case of disaster. The EOC would work like a large dispatch area for coordinating joint efforts of police, firefighters and the city hall’s crisis unit. Albany has currently designated a room in the basement of the Library Community Center as its EOC – “not an ideal location,” Wiggins said. The library room is usually rented out for library-related initiatives and doesn’t have the dedicated function an EOC needs, he said.

Measure C would also improve Albany police facilities, providing funding to a new training center for both firefighters and police. “There is an expectation to remain fit for the job,” Wiggins said. Currently, there is no designated workout space in either headquarters and firefighters use the apparatus floor as their gym. They train one morning hour per day, Monday through Friday, the captain said. The workout equipment was purchased with state money from the California Fire Fighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee training fund, he said.

At a recent dinner, six firefighters joked about living in trailers, and expressed their hope that the work will be done in one session. They will have to pack well in advance—by February, they said—and then, in May, caravan to a new shelter. “We probably need at least 5 trailers,” Wiggins said.

What the firefighters will find, after “camping” for two years, will depend on the citizens’ vote on C.