Highland Park Fire Station 12's garage door can get pretty hot during the summer time, occasionally reaching 140-degree Farenheit, according to Capt. Chris Segovia.
Segovia explained that the engines and fire trucks at Station 12 are often charging or idling, which keeps the temperatures mercilessly high.
As a result, the garage's back door is often left open, to allow cool air to flow in, and provide the crew a modicum of relief.
However, as it's one of the oldest stations in the city, Station 12's back door needs to be manually closed by firefighters every time they leave the station, which is a minor but unnecessary increase to response times, Segovia said.
On Thursday evening, the Historic voted unanimously in favor of giving a $900 Neighborhood Purposes Grant (NPG) to the firefighters to be used to install a brand new automatic garage door opener.
Capt. Gene Bednarchik promised the council that the money would go a long way in serving the community.
"With the budget crisis in the city, it's really tough to get things done around the station and to get new equipment, especially for a station the age of fire station 12. We consider this an early Christmas gift for the fire station," he said.
"It's going to benefit you folks, also," Bednarchik added. "It allows us to get out of quarters that much faster. Right now, it's a manually opening door, and every time the door opens you gotta pull on the chain, we gotta make sure it's secured when we leave, and that takes a lot of time. Now, with the garage door opener, all we have to do is push a button, so we can get out of quarters that much faster."
