By Staff
The new fire station in Washington is more than just a new building in the city. It’s a symbol.
Of course, there will be some people who say it’s a symbol of excessive spending by the city. There will be others who believe the facility isn’t needed at all. They’re wrong.
As for those who want to compare the new Station 2 to the existing headquarters station, don’t. The existing station was completed in 1965. The new station was completed in 2008, 43 years after the headquarters station first opened its doors. Such a comparison would be like comparing the Orville and Wilbur Wright’s 1903 airplane to a jet produced in 1946.
The advances in technology make a comparison of the new station to the old station almost laughable. “Everything in here is up-to-date and state-of-the-art,” Division Chief Jasper Hardison said this week. “We moved from a 1965 station to a 2008 station. … There’s been a lot of changes in technology.”
Building the second station is an important step in the history of the fire department, Smith said then.
There’s been a lot of growth in the western area of the city, growth that all but forced the city to build a second station to better protect that area. City residents and taxpayers are getting more than just a new building to look at as they drive along 15th Street Extension.
Many of them will experience faster response times when they call for a fire truck or an ambulance.
With the new station, the city’s fire rating won’t go up. It’s possible the new station could result in the city’s fire rating being lowered, which could translate into lower fire-insurance premiums for property owners, according to Jimmy Davis, the city’s fire chief.
The new station in combination with the existing headquarters station means the city is better prepared to save lives and property, Davis said. With only the headquarters station available, response times to western areas of the city ranged from eight to nine minutes, the chief said Tuesday when Station 2 opened.
Davis is right. The difference of four or five minutes in response time can mean the difference between life and death.
Station 2 was designed and equipped to serve as the city’s emergency operations center in the event of a disaster such as a hurricane hitting the city. Should the Washington Police Department lose its capability of handling 911 telephone calls during a disaster or similar event, Station 2 will be able to handle those calls.
Despite the benefits of the new facility, some people will complain about the cost of building and equipping Station 2.
Consider the cost of the station an investment, an investment that yields saved lives.