By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The city of Florence will have a brand new firehouse soon, hopefully in the fall of 2024.
Wednesday afternoon ground was broken on a 21,157 square foot fire station at 8101 Dream Street in Florence. The site will occupy a little over three acres between a day care center and a bank. Bulldozers and diggers (excavators) and other heavy machinery were already busy on the site.
“We are happy to have two of our councilmembers here, Gary Winn and Pat Wingo,” said Florence Mayor Julie Metzger Aubuchon to begin the ceremony. “We also have our former mayor, Diane Whalen. She was here with the creation of the idea to bring the firehouse to this site. It was really through her leadership, so kudos to Mayor Whalen, and thank you for being here.”
She went on to recognize members of the fire district board and members of the fire department, and thanked all the people for their time and dedication and hard work in making fire station number 34 a reality. She said that this will improve times for response, especially since 80 percent of the calls are for medical response.
“The groundbreaking of this new fire station is testament to our city’s dedication to the safety and wellbeing of our residents,” said Mayor Aubuchon. “It is an investment that will have a lasting effect on our community, and further elevate the standard of emergency response services. It will symbolize our committment to the community in keeping our community safe.”
Currently Florence has three fire stations; one on Industrial Road, one on Ted Bushelman Boulevard, and one on Weaver Road. This firehouse will be the largest, and it will house the administrative offices as well as an engine and two squads, or ambulances. It will also have a training center, a training tower, living quarters and dorms, a kitchen, a day room, a laundry, a de-con room with laundry equipment, a patio area, a fitness room, and storage areas. A Safe Haven baby box for women who want to surrender their baby will also be included. There will be three bay doors in the front, and three bays in the back for fire apparatus. It is all on one floor, and can house a total of 37 employees. According to City Project Manager Tom Gagnon, it is going to be a good size building, and he is very excited to see it built, and excited to be a part of a project of this magnitude.
KFZ Design along with Viox and Viox designed the building and Mark Spaulding is building it.
The price tag for the new fire station and all the furnishings is $11.5 million.
Assistant Fire Chief John Black said they have an engine and two squads ready at their other fire stations to move over to this building as soon as it is built. As far as staffing, two people will come from the Bushelman location, and the Battalion Chief, and one person from the Weaver location.
“Public safety is huge,” he stated. “We will be able to staff it, and council will let us know if we can hire more if we need it.”
Fire Chief Rodney Wren thanked the previous fire chief and many who had worked on this project.
“We have so many calls, so we take our information and put it into the computer and we are able to run reports that show, over a period of time, where the bulk of calls for help are coming from, and are likely to increase,” said Wren. “We call them heat maps, even I can read them, and they help us chose a location for an additional fire station. With this new station, we will be able to have quick access to the 42 corridor, with all the apartments and assisted living places, as well as to Ewing Boulevard and all the way down 18. I see this fire station as a tremendous increase in the services that we can provide for our residents, and the future shining star of Dream Street.”
The Florence Fire Department originated in 1936 and has grown from one fire station to the current soon to be four stations. The fire station on Main Street in Florence was closed awhile ago because the living quarters were underneath the bay where the heavy fire engine was housed, and that was deemed unsafe for the firefighters. It is on the historical register, however, and won’t be torn down.
The stated goal of the fire department is to arrive within 6 minutes of the call out, and they usually are able to achieve that goal.
The department is trained in several categories of rescue — rope, vehicle or machinery, hazardous material, aircraft, confined space, and EMS.
There are 72 career personnel in the department, 2 full-time civilian and 1 part- time civilian. All of the firefighters are cross trained in the EMT base, and are either Firefighter/EMT’s or Firefighter/Paramedics.The department has been commended several times by St Elizabeth hospital for their excellent response time in getting potential stroke patients to the hospital in time to ameliorate the effects of the stroke.
“The new Dream Street Fire Station will be a valuable asset to the residents of Florence, particularly in terms of faster service and response times, in this high call volume area,” said Chief Wren.