Hobbs Brook Mgmt. lends building to fire department before demolishing

The existing building at 175 Wyman St., currently undergoing demolition, was the site of training exercises conducted by the Waltham Fire Department recently. Hobbs Brook Management LLC, the owner and manager of this and nine other buildings within the Hobbs Brook Office Park, granted permission to the fire department upon their request for space that could adequately simulate dangerous conditions that may occur during fire and rescue emergencies. Training, which took place over four days and in two shifts per day, was comprised of several types of emergency situation and response. Search and rescue drills were conducted by hiding training mannequins within closed rooms and timing the fire fighters on how quickly they were discovered and removed from the building. Other drills included trapping a fire fighter in a room and having him or her practice getting out through any means except the door. This includes cutting holes in walls or breaking windows. One of the more important things the fire fighters practiced was how to ventilate a roof, which is often the first thing that must be done when responding to a fire call. Once the existing building has been demolished, Hobbs Brook will be erecting two new office buildings on the site.  The campus at 175-185 Wyman St. will be comprised of two new buildings encompassing over 330,000 s/f.  Located directly adjacent to Hobbs Brook Office Park, which consists of nine buildings totaling over 1.2 million s/f, the addition of 175-185 Wyman St. to the existing Park will allow Hobbs Brook Management to create a more dynamic office environment while offering the best access to any office park on Rte. 128.  The total office park will now be over 1.5 million s/f. 175-185 Wyman St. will have convenient structured and surface parking, mature landscaping, and direct access to Rte. 128/95 via the Wyman St. on/off ramp located directly across from the entrance to the new office park.  Construction is currently scheduled for completion in late 2009/early 2010.