County fire to open controversial station

Jace Radke

Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 | 9:39 a.m.

The opening of a new controversial fire station on Friday will cut response time to fires in the southwest part of the valley by as much as six minutes, according to Clark County fire officials.

Station 26 is set to open Friday at 4030 El Capitan Way near Durango Drive and Flamingo Road, department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

The station came under fire late last year from a group of residents who wanted the firehouse moved farther from their homes. The residents contended that the station should be located at El Capitan and Flamingo instead of its current address on El Capitan and Saddle Avenue.

A District Court judge in December cleared the way for the station to stay where the fire department originally planned.

The station, which cost about $1.5 million, will be responsible for areas north to Sahara Avenue, east to Buffalo Drive, south to Tropicana Avenue and west to the Spring Mountains.

"Station 26 will lower response times in the immediate area from about nine minutes to about three or four minutes," Leinbach said. "It will take pressure off station 22 at Rainbow (Boulevard) and Flamingo."

The new station is just the second to be located south of Sahara and west of Decatur Boulevard, but two more new stations are planned for the fast growing southwest part of the valley, Leinbach said.

Department plans also call for a station in the area of Eastern Avenue and Pecos Road, and another near Sahara and Nellis Boulevard.

The new southwest station is the third of five being built with a $10.5 million bond issue passed in June 1995.