Two clubs are fundraising for the Mount Soledad fire station, the only one in La Jolla untouched since it was constructed 43 years ago.

If thin, noisy and plastic accordion doors and about a foot of space between walls and the ceiling mean less than restful sleep, the firefighters at La Jolla’s Fire Station 16 are long overdue for an upgrade of their dormitories.

Two local Rotaries – La Jolla Sunrise Rotary and Rotary Club of La Jolla – are working together to ensure renovations (and sleep) are in the firefighters’ near future.

Fire Station 16 is on Via Casa Alta near Mount Soledad Memorial Park, and while its fellow La Jolla stations 13 and 9 have been updated and improved and the city of San Diego established a state-of-the-art new station in October at La Jolla’s border, Station 16 has not been touched since it was built in 1982.

Station 16, in fact, is one of the few stations in the city that still has dorms that are not completely closed off, with a nearly-foot gap between the three “bedrooms” and the ceiling, and folding doors that rattle as they slide closed.

La Jolla firefighters need better sleep

“It can get really noisy,” San Diego fire Capt Jason Deneau said of the dorm conditions.

Working as a firefighter is classified a Group 1 carcinogen occupation, a danger exacerbated by a lack of sleep, Deneau said.

The current Station 16 dorms critically affect the firefighters’ rest, said Wendy Moore, executive director of the San Diego Fire Rescue Foundation. 

As firefighters work 24-hour shifts, often with mandatory overtime stretching that to 96 hours, getting two or three hours’ sleep at a time, disrupted when someone opens their accordion door for the bathroom, snores or turns on a light, “that impacts their ability to get any sort of restorative sleep,” Moore said.

“By far, [getting new dorms] is our No 1 priority,” Deneau said.

“These guys, they’re responding to most of La Jolla. You think you’d want them to get the best sleep possible,” said Parker Davenport of La Jolla Sunrise Rotary.

La Jolla Rotary clubs to the rescue

Plans to upgrade the Station 16 dorms have been in the works for more than five years, Moore said, with Davenport and Cindy Goodman of Rotary Club of La Jolla visiting the station and speaking with the firefighters about their wish lists and current conditions. 

Davenport, who works with longtime, retired architect Trip Bennett, who was instrumental in the 2007 renovation of Fire Station 13, and Goodman have facilitated plans and are beginning to push forward fundraising efforts for the improvements.

“We can pitch in and make this happen,” Davenport said. “It’s about the firefighters.”

The new dorms will be separate rooms, with walls that go all the way to the ceiling and sturdy doors, he said.

There will also be individual room controls for lighting and temperature.

The upgrades will not touch exterior walls, Davenport said. “This all takes place within the existing footprint.”

“It’s this really small thing that we can do to help protect the health and wellness of the first responders,” Moore said.

It’s not so small, however, Deneau notes, as the current dorm partitions and layout means the station is lower on the list for firefighters looking for open positions.

More and more women are firefighters now, Deneau said, but with no privacy for lactation and other reasons, Station 16 isn’t as equipped as other stations to fill vacancies.

Fundraising and future plans

The city is providing the labor for the renovations, Davenport said, with the Rotaries pitching in the funding through donations.

The project is currently estimated to cost $150,000, according to Moore.

The San Diego Fire Rescue Foundation is currently accepting donations on behalf of the Rotaries and in support of the station.

Left to right, Capt Jason Deneau and firefighters Paul Clausen and Trevor Peterson of Fire Station 16 in La Jolla.

To donate, visit sdfirerescue.org and specify the contribution is for Fire Station 16, Moore said.

The two Rotary clubs are also fundraising through the summer and hope to have two large donor events in the fall to collect the money, Davenport said. The details are yet to be determined.

Any leftover funds will be used for future plans to renovate the rest of the station, including the older bathrooms, kitchen, separating the engine garage and gym space and adding a second laundry unit. 

“The whole station could really use an upgrade,” Davenport said, adding that’s a much bigger project that triggers newer ADA codes and extensive work that would disrupt the firefighters’ daily use of the space.

“We’re really grateful to the Rotaries for initiating this project and for staying with it,” Moore said.