With women making up more than 8% of firefighters in the UK, fire stations are increasingly striking a need for carefully considered shared living and working quarters.

Designing and retrofitting a station’s communal spaces to be more inclusive and gender neutral while striking a balance for privacy can often be a challenge, says associate director and architect at Pick Everard, Chris Gilbert.

Today’s fire station designs increasingly bear little resemblance to the early days of women joining the service, led by trailblazers Josephine Reynolds and Sue Batten, who both signed up in 1982.

Invariably, a room would need to be converted to allow female firefighters to change, shower and rest privately, with their male counterparts sharing an open dormitory. It can be a challenge to find suitable spaces for such conversions in an old building, and we have seen one premises where the station commander’s living quarters had to be adapted.

These days we are increasingly seeing the development of more inclusive facilities to be used by all staff in new buildings and many older stations alike. In our work in fire stations across the UK, we are creating gender neutral zones such as integrated shower, toilet and changing facilities with open plan locker rooms to cater for a more diverse workforce.

Working in the blue light sector, moves to improve equality in the workforce have really come to the fore. And with the funding opportunities available under the government’s net zero drive, clients want to tackle both topics as they look to upgrade their estates.

Fire station communal spaces are key

Shared spaces are a key element within fire stations, with their use partly driven by the speed at which firefighters need to move through the building when called to an emergency. They also foster a camaraderie that is essential in maintaining good working relationships.

In our current redevelopment project for Reigate fire station in Surrey, which is being demolished to make way for a new modern building, we have closely considered the central role of the locker or kit room.

This room will be open to all users and the plan is for staff, who will be wearing their work uniforms, to simply go there to pick up their personal protective equipment (PPE), such as boots, helmets, jackets, trousers and gloves, before heading straight out to the fire engine.

A new era of private rest rooms with showers

Historically, fire stations have had open dormitories predominantly for male firefighters and there has been a struggle across existing estates to make adequate provision for the increase in female crew members. A new station like Reigate gives us the ideal opportunity to design a modern layout that allows privacy for all.

The station will have rest rooms with shower facilities that won’t be designated male or female, simply a private space. This gender-neutral approach should hopefully avoid any potential conflicts.

These well-considered spaces are also cost-efficient, as they make better use of the space. It can also be difficult to anticipate, for example, the balance of separate male and female toilet facilities, because crew sizes and shifts can differ on a regular basis.

There are typically six crew members covering each shift at Reigate, so the rooms will have four secure wardrobe units for the staff to store their personal belongings. The kitchen will have four fridge freezer units, giving each of them their own cold storage area and a lockable larder cupboard for dry goods.

Decontamination spaces

Spatial arrangement strategies are of paramount importance to the fire service when crews return from emergencies needing to decontaminate their kit and thoroughly wash themselves and the fire equipment down to limit the spread of contaminants. It’s quite a complex picture in the UK, and there is a lot of catching up to be done with the likes of America, Canada and in particular Scandinavia and their approaches.

We’ve been looking at an innovative individual shower pod solution in a refurbishment project for a leading regional combined authority. A set of gender-neutral changing spaces containing a shower, toilet and washbasin means crew members can go straight in, shower and change and come out fully dressed. There will be locker provision for secure storage of belongings and drying rooms for their wet towels.

These ground-floor shower pods are specifically used for the decontamination process and will be completely separate from the sleeping and living quarters. An external door will allow crews to only access them from outside, effectively segregating the ‘clean’ from the ‘dirty’ facilities.

Building layouts will be improved to address open plan dormitories issues, splitting them to create the private rest rooms and shower concept we’ve pioneered at Reigate. Commencing works in an operational building will be a challenge as every space and rest areas are used daily.

Looking to the future

Creating these gender-neutral facilities in fire stations is an intricate design job that needs careful consideration. Although demand for the changes is often union-driven, staff recruitment and retention is a growing issue as the fire service’s established workforce nears retirement age and will need replacing.

The world is constantly changing and everyone agrees that creating a nice, welcoming working environment that is flexible, inclusive and considers people’s different needs is essential to the fire service’s future success and well-being.

For more information on Pick Everard, visit its blue light sector page or head to https://www.pickeverard.co.uk/.