Former ‘Chiller Plant’ To Become Emergency Operations Center

By Andrew Gorosko

Workers this week began gutting an approximately 3,100-square-foot building at Fairfield Hills that will be converted for use as the town’s emergency operations center.

Until now, the Sandy Hook Firehouse on Riverside Road has been used for an emergency operations center. It was used for that purpose last April when a nor’easter brought extensive flooding to town, and last May when a tornado occurred.

The building at Fairfield Hills currently undergoing the conversion is commonly known as the “chiller plant.” It is located between Canaan House and Cochran House. The building contained the equipment that was used for summertime cooling at those two residential buildings at the former state psychiatric hospital.

Bill Halstead, the town emergency management director, said the converted building will be a permanent facility replacing what have been temporary quarters at the firehouse.

The new operations center will include a staff room where telephones and information processing equipment will be in use, a radio room for communications equipment, and a video conferencing room, he said. The videoconferencing facilities would allow authorities in the region to have both visual and sonic communications during emergencies, he said.

The operations center most often would be put in use during weather-related emergencies, Mr Halstead said. Other possible uses would be for incidents such as gasoline tanker accidents involving fires, and train derailments in which toxic chemicals are spilled.

The Fairfield Hills Authority has approved converting the chiller plant for use as an emergency operations center, Mr Halstead said.

Approximately $195,000 in state grant funds will be used to convert the building, Mr Halstead said. That money is earmarked for municipal capital improvement projects.

After the building’s interior is gutted of its various piping and equipment, appropriate rooms will be constructed within.

Mr Halstead said he expects the town will store its spare fire truck in the building, as well as various firefighting supplies, such as firefighting foam concentrate and absorbent materials that are used in cleaning up fluid spills. The spare fire truck currently is stored at the Fairfield Hills firehouse on Trades Lane.

Mr Halstead said it is unclear when the new facility will open for use, adding that it may be ready later this year. The staffing of the facility would vary, depending upon the type of emergency that is occurring.

Dom Posca, who formerly managed the public school system’s buildings and grounds maintenance unit, now works as a supervisor for DeMarco Management Corp, the firm which manages Fairfield Hills for the town. Mr Posca is supervising the conversion of the chiller plant into the emergency operations center.