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SIERRA VISTA — Sierra Vista’s firefighters and 5-year-old Christina Street have a common ability — to act quickly in an emergency.
Street was quick to notice the smoke in her family’s home on the night of Dec. 17.
“She didn’t panic and without hesitation she went straight for her little brother, removed him from the crib and carried him outside,” said Acting Capt. Todd Madden of the Sierra Vista Fire Department.
Soon after, a crew was dispatched from the city’s newest station, Fire Station 3 at 675 Giulio Cesare.
  
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“We were a few minutes closer than we would have been, which could have made a difference,” Madden said.
A desire to increase response times was the reason for Fire Station 3, and about 240 people celebrated the station’s grand opening Friday afternoon.
Fire Chief Randy Redmond said that since moving into the new station, fire crews have been able to respond quickly to two structure fires “in less than a couple minutes.”
“We appreciated how fast we were able to get there,” he said.
While looking back at past department records, Redmond noticed a log entry on Jan. 9, 1972, a call to a brush fire lasted 10 minutes.
“During the same month, S.V.F.D ran 11 calls. Today, we’ll have 14 or 15 and we’ll run about 400 this month, so things have changed a little bit,” he said.
In the past six months, the Fire Department has added 33 percent more personnel, new procedures and training, along with the new station.
“Not one time did you skip a beat and I applaud you,” Redmond said to the department’s staff.
The city’s Fire Station 1 at 1295 E. Fry Blvd. opened in 1975 under Fire Chief Ron Newcomer. The city’s Fire Station 2 at 4127 Avenida Cochise was opened in 1993 under Fire Chief Bruce Thompson.
About 10 years later, Thompson pushed for the Citizen’s Advisory Commission to place a new station as a priority in the city’s plans, said City Manager Chuck Potucek.
Former Mayor Tom Hessler and members of City Council in 2005 approved a slight sales tax increase to help fund the new fire station, which was estimated to cost about $1.5 million annually to run.
Once the plans were set in motion, a core group was responsible for working in the new building, including city engineer Sharon Flissar, Redmond and former fire Capt. Bill Wright, said Mike Hemesath, the city’s director of public works.
They traveled to stations statewide and talked about what went right and what went wrong in designs.
“The whole theme of this project was to do it right” and look toward the future, Hemesath said.
Later, architect and project manager Scott Rummel also joined the group, as well as Kipp Young, project manager, and Chris Flint, the project superintendent, from Concord Construction to build the new fire station.
Participation in the design process was wide reaching and included department employees Bob Fields and Jeff Will, who designed the memorial plaza outside, Rummel said. Spending was wise, and the building was built with sustainability in mind, though they did not pursue LEED certification, he said.
“It does, in many ways, qualify for all the energy characteristics, use of materials, local materials and resources,” Rummel said.
Hemesath said the group created a fire station the city’s firefighters, City Council and community can be proud of, and built within budget at “under $5.5 million.”
“You won’t see their individual names on that dedication plaque out front, but this core project team of professionals is why we’re all here today in awe and celebration of this magnificent, 17,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art fire station.”
Redmond noted that the station’s large training room that the grand opening ceremony took place in has already been booked for 25,000 individual training hours over the coming months. That training will be in paramedicine, computer dispatch, hazard materials and other topics. The room allows the ability to put the whole department in one room to train for the first time in 20 years.
On a whole, the station is the newest tool to allow firefighters to decrease “response times to your emergency,” Redmond said.
The city will be looking to continue improving fire service with a automatic aid agreement with the Fry Fire District that is being developed, as well as consolidating dispatch services across the county. Potucek said a new station also is planned in the area of the Tribute housing development.
Mayor Bob Strain said the opening of the new fire station is an example of a satisfaction the City Council has while serving.
“They’re a physical representation of the tremendous staff that this city has working on your behalf and we all appreciate that very much,” he said.
Bob Barger, director of Fire, Building and Life Safety for the state, commended the new station for having the ability to improve service in the city, as well as for state and national response issues.
Public safety departments must work together to accomplish their missions, he said.
Street and another young heroine, 6-year-old Valencia Pierce were also recognized at the grand opening ceremony for their demonstrating safe practice during an emergency.
Pierce recognized that her mother needed help on the morning of Dec. 5.
“For some reason something woke up Valencia out of her sleep, only to discover that her mother was unable to speak or respond to her,” said Capt. Josh Meeker.
She then called 9-1-1.
“She put her fears aside and relied on what she had been taught to do in an emergency,” Meeker said.
For the grand finale, Fire Department members pushed the department’s new 67,000-pound truck into the station’s bay while retired fire chiefs Ron Newcomer and Bruce Thompson, retired Deputy Chief Frank Capas and retired Capt. Bill Wright were given honorary seats inside.
Afterward, visitors, including Patti Armstrong and Sharon Macy, offered congratulations to the department and took tours of the new facility. Armstrong said the station gives enough room to grow as the community grows.
“It’s huge,” Macy said.
Herald/Review reporter Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683 or by e-mail at laura.ory@svherald.com.
To excesses wrote on Jan 11, 2009 10:31 AM:
SVFD has always maintained a lean service in terms of staffing. And they also provide an ambulance service, unlike most fire departments.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics... "