Carlsbad Fire department: Station 2 shakes all over

The fire station at the corner of El Camino Real and Arenal Road in Carlsbad is wrapped in now-banned shake shingles. (Photo by John Raifsnider - for the North County Times)

CARLSBAD: Fire station a curiosity of shake shingles

CARLSBAD ---- When the story is destructive wildfire, the villain often is the shake shingle.

The city of Carlsbad learned a tough lesson about the common wooden roofing material in the 1996 Harmony fire, when embers blew onto and under shakes, setting dozens of homes ablaze.

No wonder, then, that firefighters at Station Two in La Costa say they have gotten used to wisecracks about their 1968 firehouse, which appears to celebrate the now-vilified material.

While Carlsbad's own building code won't allow any new shake roofs, every side of the squat fire station boasts a facade rippling with brown cedar shingles.

"We get comments and jokes from people who come to the station for tours," said Capt. Rich Vance, who heads a shift of firefighters at the building. "Especially after the big fires, when people are more aware of building materials.

"We're as aware as the public that it's not the most fire-safe building covering," Vance continued. "We sense the irony of having that appearance on a fire station."

Vance, 47, said he doesn't think a single shake has been replaced since he was a child, roaming about the station's grounds while his parents played tennis at the La Costa Resort and Spa next door.

Carlsbad Fire Battalion Chief Mark Davis confirmed that. Except for new doors for the engine bays, the station's exterior has never been significantly remodeled. He said the city inherited the small station when it annexed the area in 1971.

Like many other public buildings, he said the station was designed to match its surroundings ---- in this case, the Balboa and Cortez buildings at the La Costa Resort.

Those two buildings are getting facelifts to update their retro-rustic veneer.

Davis said the main reason the cramped, 2,500-square-foot building at Arenal Road and El Camino Real has never been replaced is that it still serves the public well.

And replacing only the shakes with noncombustible siding is not a cheap alternative to a new station, he said. Though the shingles are primarily a decorative feature, they are attached to an extensive wooden structure underneath.

Davis said that department leaders recently have discussed the need to overhaul or replace the station. But they are not making any short term plans, given a shrinking city budget. The veteran firefighter said he has put off redoing his own Carlsbad home's shake roof because of the cost.

Since Station Two was built, California's fire season has gotten longer and more destructive, and newer, less-combustible building materials have become common.

The firehouse sits in an area with a moderate to high risk of wildfire, according to maps generated by the state Office of the Fire Marshal. It is across the street from the Batiquitos Lagoon nature reserve, which can be susceptible to brush fire in dry conditions.

Davis said it was "a stretch" to think an uncontrolled wind-whipped wildfire at the nature reserve would send embers across four-lane El Camino Real and destroy Station Two.

However, he agreed that if the station is rebuilt, it should have fire-resistant siding.

Carlsbad Fire Marshal Jim Weigand said that building codes do not apply retroactively, and that Fire Station Two conformed to the standards of its time.

He added that the city's building code bans shake shingle roofs, but not shake siding.

Oceanside fire Battalion Chief Pete Lawrence said that shake siding can be just as risky as a shake roof in a firestorm of embers.

"The problem is there are so many little spaces the embers can get into," he said. "That's my unscientific opinion from watching the fire lines over the past 25 years and seeing what happens to all these different constructions."

Clay Westling, a senior structural engineer with the county's Department of Planning and Land Use, said that county building codes ban shake shingle siding in areas with a high risk of wildfire. New buildings must use noncombustible materials such as stucco, masonry or fiberboard siding that looks like wood.

Mark Berklite, another shift captain and veteran firefighter at Station Two, said it's a shame the city put off updating the building during more flush times.

This week, he circled the station, pulling back the shakes to show how easily they came away from the rotting structure underneath. He called the station an "eyesore" that projects an unprofessional image and noted that it's too small to accommodate training.

Taking a long look at Station Two from the front, Berklite marveled that anyone designed it that way in the first place.

"I just don't know what they were thinking," he said.

Source: NC Times - Link