North Las Vegas opens $4.7 million fire station

By Jeff Pope

Thursday, March 26, 2009 | 7:57 p.m.

The North Las Vegas Fire Department celebrated the grand opening today of its seventh fire station.

Although dedicated as Station 53, it’s actually the city’s second Station 53. The new location at 2804 W. Gowan Road, near Simmons Street, replaces the old facility at 3001 Martin Luther King Blvd.

The new station is larger with room to add services and includes technology upgrades. Response vehicles will also remain at the old Station 53 to ensure the department meets its goal of responding within five minutes, Fire Chief Al Gillespie said.

“We’ve increased our response to our citizens in this developed area,” he said.

The new $4.7 million station is 15,000 square feet and is the first for the department with four vehicles bays. It houses 14 personnel, a fire engine, rescue unit and an air resource unit.

“We built this for the future,” Gillespie said. “We have a little extra room here to add crews as our responses become necessary.”

The old Station 53 eventually will be replaced by Station 50 in the area of Cheyenne Avenue and North Fifth Street.

The move to the new station is a little bittersweet for Assistant Chief Mike Parry, who celebrated the grand opening of the old Station 53 as a new recruit in May 1972.

At that time, Martin Luther King Boulevard was known as Highland Drive and was a dirt road leading to the station, he said.

“I was a captain there for 15 years and I have a lot of fond memories,” he said. “But these modern facilities are so much nicer.”

Among the technological changes that will benefit the crew is a computer system that alerts only the necessary personnel to an emergency rather than a blaring horn. So if there is a medical emergency in the middle of the night, only the paramedics will have to wake up.