Tremendous growth leaves northwest part of city vulnerable to fires

Diana Sahagun

Monday, Nov. 1, 1999 | 11:26 a.m.

Because home development has outpaced the construction of fire stations, a fire truck in North Las Vegas may need eight to 10 minutes to respond to a call in some parts of the city.

That's a dangerous if not potentially fatal response time, City Fire Chief Robert Dodge says, and the city can't move fast enough to correct the problem.

Currently, one fire station -- one fire truck -- covers one-third of the city.

That station -- Station 54 on Ann Road and Camino El Norte -- is responsible for more than half of the city's population in the northwest, where in the past 10 years the population has more than doubled north of Alexander Road.

As the number of fire responses has grown with the population, Station 54 has found itself responding to 75 percent of the city's fire calls, Dodge said. Between April 1998 and April 1999 that came to more than 1,900 responses. There were 2,569 fire calls in North Las Vegas in that time frame, an increase of 25 percent since 1994-95, fire department statistics show.

Although there is a cooperative agreement among the cities of North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Clark County for the closest available unit to respond regardless of municipal boundaries, Station 54 often is the closest to remote northwest fires.

The closest county station to Station 54 is Station 23 at Alexander Road and Lamb Boulevard. The closest Las Vegas stations are Station 42 at 2331 W. Cheyenne Ave., and Station 9 at 4747 N. Rainbow Blvd.

The North Las Vegas City Council is confronting the problem, deliberating at many meetings on how to protect residents. One temporary fix initiated a few months ago is to require developers to install sprinklers in new homes -- a policy that has been criticized by developers.

What council members would prefer is to build a fifth fire station -- Station 55 -- in the northwest. But because of financing it could take as long as 10 years to open a fifth station, city officials say.

In the meantime, the council is planning to move Station 52, currently at Cheyenne Avenue and Civic Center Drive, to the northwest to share Station 54's load.

In August the City Council approved the purchase of a 3.44-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Losee and Frehner roads for a $3 million, 15,000-square-foot building. Station 52's current location will be sold and that money put toward the cost.

A portion of the new building will serve as a satellite facility for the maintenance operations division of the Public Works Department.

The remaining 9,500 square feet will house the fire station, which will include room for equipment, classroom space and living quarters for 10 people. What it won't require is an increase in staff or fire equipment to the city, making it more affordable than an added station.

Carpenter Sellers and Associates, which has designed fire stations in the city of Las Vegas, was paid $585,019 for preliminary design of the structure. Final construction is expected to be completed in 18 months, Dodge said.

"Station 52 is going to alleviate the problem by satisfying growth needs for the next few years," Dodge said.

Deputy Chief Jim Stubler added that Station 52 currently overlaps the coverage area of Station 51, on Carey Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. Station 53, at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Brooks Avenue, does not reach north of Alexander Road. The relocated station will be closer to Station 54, which will help achieve faster response times.

Relocating the 30-year-old station was inevitable, Dodge said. While the station was once at the city's northern boundary it isn't any longer, and the need to use the crowded Cheyenne interchange at Interstate 15 isn't practical.

Response times are the department's biggest concern, Dodge said. The fire department aims for four- to six-minute response times for calls. But a problem arises when a station is already out on a call when another call comes in. The next available station could take 10 minutes to arrive.

"The problem is not so much the station itself, but what happens when the station isn't there," he said. "If Engine 54 is out on a call, the next available engine could be more than 4 miles away, making a response time more than 10 minutes in parts of the city."

Dodge painted a possible scenario:

"If a flash-over fire goes unchecked, a building is going to be full of smoke in two minutes. Let's say it takes someone one to two minutes to make the call to report the fire. Add a minute until the fire station gets the call and is out of the building. We're talking eight minutes' travel time. By the time we arrive and hook up, now you're looking at 12 minutes," he said, adding that a home that far away could be destroyed in the time it takes the fire department to get there.

The city isn't giving up its plan to build a fifth station to handle the rapid growth in the northwest. Carpenter Sellers and Associates is already designing the floor plan for a future 6,000-square-foot fire station.

The facility is being designed to serve as the prototype for living quarters used in the relocated Station 52, as well as for future fire stations.

The city has already mapped out a tentative site: the southwest corner of Washburn Road and Allen Lane near Theron H. Goynes Park in a ranch/estates district. But Dodge said he wouldn't rule out moving the station six or eight blocks in either direction if residents are unhappy with the arrangement.

"The idea of a fire station is that most people don't want it in their neighborhood," he said. "The idea is to build the fire station so that even if you lived 200 yards away, you wouldn't be telling people 'Turn right at that pink building,' " he said.

Among other amenities the future facility would house two fire trucks and a search and rescue team. Although the timeline for building has yet to be determined, Dodge said the cost is estimated at $2.5 million, adding that "Station 55 is going to have to be built. We're just waiting for the go-ahead by the council."

Mayor Michael Montandon said it isn't such a matter of behind told to "go ahead" as it is looking at where the money is going to come from.

"If the money was there, we'd have had that fire station yesterday," he said. "It's the principal thing we're looking at in next year's budget."

Montandon said that while the council has approved new developments, it has also shifted some responsibility for fire protection to the developers by requiring them to install sprinklers or come up with another option.

He added that there is already a site master-planned for the station and that zoning applications are already in, giving initial indications that developers would be willing to build a small fire station.

"It is absolutely on the minds of the council," Montandon said. "As a city you're always excited when you're growing. That means people want to live in the city and want to come here. But there's nothing in it for us if we get too far ahead of the development curve."

Sun reporter

Ed Koch contributed to this report.