Joe Altheimer (L) and Paul Richard (R)

November brought an opportunity to visit some of our St. Louis area contractors. On one of these visits I was able to visit Bi-State Fire Protection located on the north side of the Missouri River town of St. Charles. Senior Project Manager Joe Altheimer, a 22-year employee of Bi-State, extended his hospitality and provided a tour of the facility.

Joe explained that Bi-State Fire Protection Corporation is a full-service fire protection contractor, providing complete services for design, engineering and consulting, new installation, ITM, retrofit, and 24-hour repair.

During our visit, a tractor trailer was on site making a delivery in order to supply the in-house fabrication service. Joe explained that fabrication requires more effort on their part with the additional employees, but the resources give them the ability to control delivery time, begin a project in a more efficient and timely manner and avoid potential slowdowns on the jobsite.

Bi-State’s home is a 15,000 square foot warehouse and office complex that originally had no fire protection system. Joe explained that having a non-sprinklered building would make it difficult to be an advocate for fire sprinklers, so the company sprinklered the building.

During the tour we met several of the friendly Bi-State staff who were all busy going about their work. It was clear that company President Curt Dreyer has some exceptionally talented and dedicated fire protection veterans working in the company. Bi-State is, without a doubt, a champion of employee training, an advocate for fire safety, and a leader in the fire protection field.