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New Fire Station Opens in Southeast Meridian: Check Out City's Fourth Facility at Festivities Saturday

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Kathleen Kreller, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Feb. 21--MERIDIAN -- In a fast-growing section of southeast Meridian, the Fire Department has constructed a sparkling new building and wants the public to come take a look on Saturday.

The Meridian Fire Department has scheduled a ribbon-cutting and open house starting at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fire Station No. 4 at 2515 S. Eagle Road, between Overland and Victory roads south of Interstate 84.

"We have invited the whole community...to come and enjoy the festivities in opening up our new fire station," said Kenny Bowers, assistant fire chief. "It's just to let the people see what their taxes have paid for -- to see the fire truck, the equipment."

Firefighters started their first shifts in the new station house last week. They are still getting used to their new rooms, appliances and location.

"It's nice to be the first crew in there," said Adam Johnston, a 26-year-old firefighter-paramedic.

The station is located near the Eagle Road interchange with I-84, so firefighters and new in-house paramedics can get to the scene of accidents and fires quickly. The station also will serve the growing residential and commercial areas south of the freeway.

In the past few years, huge new commercial developments such as El Dorado and Silverstone -- which houses Citi Cards and T-Mobile call centers -- have sprung up along Overland and Eagle Roads near St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center and medical offices. What were empty fields are now covered with coffee shops, banks and office buildings.

New subdivisions, including Tuscany Lakes, also are filling up fast south of the freeway.

"The building looks very nice. It's on a busy road, though," Bowers said. "That's going to be able to serve those residents, those subdivisions very well, very fast. We get quite a few calls down in that commercial area. It's going to really help us get to those places much quicker."

Before the new station, firefighters had to find a way to cross busy I-84 to respond to calls. The city's three north-south freeway crossings are clogged with traffic at Meridian Road, Eagle Road and the Ten Mile overpass.

Meridian's three other fire stations all were opened within the past six years on the north side of Interstate 84 at Locust Grove Road, Franklin Road and Ten Mile Road. The Meridian Fire Department has 49 employees, Bowers said.

The city had to hire 12 new firefighters to staff the fourth fire station, so it brought on 12 firefighter-paramedics who are divided between the four stations. The city officially launched a new program to put trained paramedic/firefighters on each of its engines in January. City and fire leaders wanted firefighters with more advanced life-saving skills to respond quickly to accidents and emergencies as the city continues to grow, Chief Ron Anderson has said.

The Meridian Fire Department responds to emergency calls in a 54-square-mile jurisdiction bounded by the south channel of the Boise River to the north, Lake Hazel Road to the south, Cloverdale Road to the east and McDermott Road. About 61,000 people live in the fire district, according to the city's Web site. Meridian's population has increased from about 9,000 residents in 1990 to more than 56,000 today.

To help keep up with growth, the city and rural fire district built the new $1 million station. It will take months before the building's new $350,000 fire truck is ready, Bowers said. Until then, the firefighters and paramedics of Station No. 4 will use one of the department's older, reserve vehicles.

The new firehouse is homey, but sparsely furnished and decorated. The firehouse has several bedrooms, a conference room, weight room, office areas and bays for trucks.

In the living area, cooking gadgets are neatly lined up in kitchen drawers. And two refrigerators dispense ice and water simultaneously -- a feature firefighter Chad Coltrin said is his favorite. Four cushy blue recliners sit in front of a television screen.

Firefighters work 24-hour shifts and spend a third of their lives on duty, said firefighter Lance Witt, so they need a few creature comforts in the fire house.

The city is developing a small parcel of open land next door to the fire station as a pocket park. That will give the firefighters more opportunities to meet with the public, Coltrin said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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