FD1 says Station 10 makes sense

Published 8:07 pm Tuesday, May 25, 2010

LYNNWOOD — Snohomish County Fire District 1 looked at a lot of factors before deciding to build a new fire station east of Highway 99, and all the indicators pointed to a vacant swath of land north of Lynnwood.

On May 22, fire officials and the public celebrated the culmination of that planning with the grand opening of Fire Station 10, 3922 156th St. SW.

The event kicked off with a dedication ceremony and flag-raising with the FD1 Honor Guard and Snohomish County Firefighters Pipes and Drums. The community toured the 13,000-square-foot station, learned about fire safety and explored the inside of a fire engine and medic unit.

The station opened its doors in mid-April and is staffed around the clock by a crew of three firefighters. The station is expected to provide faster call times primarily to Meadowdale, Ash Way and Highway 99.

Jim Kenny, chairman of the FD1 board of commissioners, said Station 10 will help relieve call volumes for three stations — Station 23, Station 21 and the Lynnwood Fire Station — that form a triangle around their service area.

Kenny said it drains resources when stations venture too far from their jurisdiction.

“Now we’ve put one (station) in the middle so they can stay in their location,” he said.

Assistant Chief Brad Reading said the entire region is taken into account when building fire stations. FD1’s service area winds across the map and doesn’t fit in a tidy square, Reading said.

“We have to play nice with our neighbors,” he said. “No one can do it alone anymore.”

Regionally, the location of Fire Station 10 is appropriate, he said.

“The key is to build where it makes sense to better serve the region,” he said.

Reading said personnel is dispatched based off which station is geographically closest to the emergency, rather than by jurisdiction.

“When it comes down to service, we try to do the right thing and what’s best,” he said.

Kenny said the district scrutinized southwest Snohomish County for weak spots in service areas. They also looked 10 years out to predict which areas will have a higher demand for service.

Overlooking jurisdiction lines, the district pinpointed the area along Highway 99 between 148th and 168th streets as a soft spot. The Highway 99 corridor has the highest call load areas, Kenny said.

“A lot of people are living around there and more (calls) are coming,” he said.

FD1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said officials ran computer models studying drive times, how call times were impacted when the closest stations were dispatched and how frequently stations were called out of their jurisdictions.

The $5.4 million price tag for the station included land purchase, design, construction and sales tax. Money was set aside each year for capital improvements rather than going before the voters for a bond issue.