After completing the largest firehouse renovation project in the history of the nation’s oldest fire department, a grand reopening was held yesterday with fire officials, area elected leaders, and local residents.
Daye marveled at the transformation of the building he has worked at for the past decade.
“They’ve just done a spectacular job,’’ he said.
Last night, Daye spent his 46th birthday working at the Brighton firehouse. It was the first shift anyone has worked there since a $3 million undertaking began on the three-story building last June. It is the third-oldest active firehouse in Boston, and this was its first major renovation.
Two other city firehouses are scheduled for upgrades within the next year, but of a lesser scale than work done to the Brighton building.
“I don’t know of any others that were in the condition the one in Oak Square was,’’ said spokesman Steve MacDonald.
Occasionally, the power would go out. When an emergency call came in, firefighters would have to hop on top of the fire trucks to manually open the station’s garage doors, Daye said.
Most of the upstairs walls and hardwood floors were painted a depressing gray, and the interior’s brickwork was covered with plaster.
On each floor, there was chronic leaking, along with exposed pipes and wiring, Daye recalled. Where there were no holes in the ceilings and walls, much of the paint and plaster was peeling.
But renovations have vastly modernized the building, while preserving much of the historic fabric of the 12,000-square-foot facility.
The project gutted much of the firehouse. Some aging brickwork and mortar, along with the building’s roof and its first-floor kitchen, were replaced, but much of the original masonry and woodwork were restored. The building is now compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it has improved water- and fire-proofing, energy-efficient heating, and cooling.
