New Fire Station To Be Built In Springs

Twenty fire stations are within Colorado Springs city limits, but that number will be changing in 2013.

Station 21 is to be built near Dublin Boulevard and Peterson Road, and Colorado Springs Fire Department said the groundbreaking should happen by the middle of 2012.

?Station 21 will serve a very much-needed area of the city, and we?re excited about that,? said Chief Richard Brown.

Brown said the response times for northeastern Colorado Springs are not up to his standards because the stations servicing this area are located to far away.

?We know that time equates to survivability on medical emergencies. Time also equates to the reduction of fire loss on a structure fire,? said Brown.

Colorado Springs Fire Department said response times in this part of the state are at or under eight minutes 72 percent of the time. After Station 21 is built, CSFD said that percentage is estimated to increase by 5 percent to 9 percent.

?The minute it opens for service in 2013, we?ll probably run over 600 calls a year out of that station,? said Brown.

The station is expected to cost $2.6 million, and Brown said they will be staying within their allotted budget.

?We?re trying really hard to be creative and innovative to stretch our budget dollars as best we can to get services into a much needed area,? said Brown.

Brown said that seven of the 20 existing stations in Colorado Springs employ two companies, that is two crews and two vehicles.

?The mindset as we sit and breathe today is that we would actually deploy one of those crews to that new station. We are not shutting stations. We would leave that station staffed with one crew and then take that second crew and put them into that station 21 area,? said Brown.

Brown told KRDO Newschannel 13 that the plans that are set in place today, with respect to staffing, are not set in stone. He said they could potentially change in the time before the station is actually opened.

?Between now and middle of 2013, a million things could change but this is how we are looking at doing it today,? said Brown.

Brown said the station should be open for service by the middle of 2013.

Brown also said they are considering opening another station, Station 22, near Voyager Parkway and North Gate Boulevard but that a time frame for this station has not yet been developed