More stations, personnel planned for Colorado Springs Fire Department as city continues growth

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- At least four new fire stations and 200 personnel will be needed over the next five to seven years as the city continues to grow, fire department officials said Monday.

"That is what would be the goal," said Fire Chief Randy Royal. "But under our constraints of budgets and taxes, that's probably not a reality. It takes about 2 or 3 years to do the whole process of getting a station up and running."

Groundbreaking for the first of those stations is scheduled for later this year beside the current CSFD headquarters on Printers Parkway; it will include a radio shop to repair fire, police and city department radios.

The new station will replace a small fire unit that has worked in classroom space at headquarters for at least a decade.

Two more stations will likely be built on the city's northeast side and eastern border in response to continued residential and commercial development.

The new stations also will help reduce high service call volumes at existing stations; CSFD expects to set a record this year of 70,000 service calls.

According to CSFD, the department is meeting its response time goal of 8 minutes or less for fire calls but is slightly behind its goal of 12 minutes or less for fires.

CSFD also wants to create smaller units in SUV-type vehicles that can respond to minor medical emergencies and free up primary resources for more important duties, since the majority of CSFD responses are for medical calls.

Because the cost of a new station isn't cheap -- the Printers Parkway station will cost around $5 million -- developers may have to help cover those costs through higher fees.

The city is currently talking with developers about the matter, but developers already have expressed concern about fees being high enough to significantly add to the cost of new homes.

"Whether it's a building permit fee or a water tap, we want to make sure we understand that we're ultimately looking out for the lot end user -- which is the consumer -- who buys the house," said Tim Siebert, vice president of Nor'wood Development Group. "And all those costs then add into that price. And with affordability a challenge, we're making sure that we find the right balance."