New fire station officially opens Tuesday in Colorado Springs; more on the way
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Officials said that the new Fire Station 23 is the first in a wave of stations that will be built over the next decade as the city's growth continues.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday afternoon celebrated the opening of the $4.5 million station located east of downtown, near Memorial Park and next door to fire department headquarters on Printers Parkway.
Half of the station will be used by firefighters; the other half is a radio shop that provides technicians with more space and greater efficiency for maintaining and repairing hundreds of police and fire department radios.
The new station is an expansion of a smaller unit that has been operating out of headquarters for several years.
Station 23 also is an area where medical calls are common; in fact, those calls are expected to comprise 70% of the call volume.
"The surrounding stations had more than 30,000 medical calls last year," said Fire Chief Randy Royal. "That's a pretty heavy workload. And when those stations were out on calls, we had to cover for them. That's no longer necessary with the new station."
Officials already have plans to start construction on two more stations next year -- one near the intersection of Powers Boulevard and Interquest Parkway on the city's northeast side, and the other south of the city's airport in the Colorado Centre community.
"It's an existing fire district," Royal explained. "We're working on an agreement together to where we would run out of their station there, do some remodeling and then provide them with an advanced life support engine crew."
Officials said that the city's ten-year plan calls for at least seven fire stations in the present city limits.
"That's about 160 to 200 more firefighters we'll need during that period," Royal said.
Firefighters also have started to assess fire response needs in the proposed Amara annexation area, covering 3,200 acres southeast of the city; the City Council expects to vote on the proposal later this month.
"We're probably going to need at least two fire stations there," Royal said. "If the annexation gets approved, we'll have to be ready to start planning for that."
Station 23 also has longer bays for parking and use of fire apparatus, and technology to help protect firefighters health.
"We all know that firefighters have a high incidence of cancer because of the toxic substances they're exposed to," said Fire department Capt. Mike Smaldino. "So, those carcinogens that might be stuck on the gear, we actually now have them in their own separate room, with their own separate ventilation system to just exhaust that air out."
Dale Solano has lived across the street from the station location since 1994, and said that he's thankful for the new station.
"I know some people may not like living close to a fire station because of the loud sirens," he said. "But I like it because I'm elderly, so it's close by if I have a fire or a medical emergency. I also think a station tends to keep troublemakers out of the area."
