Plans for a new fire station on Eau Claire’s north side are moving forward. Tuesday, the city took the first step to acquire land at the corner of Birch St. and Malden Ave. for the new building which would replace Fire Station 10.

The station was built back in 1949 and the city says its outdated and in need of replacement.

“We are at a point in time where the building has reached the end of its useful life,” Fire Chief Chris Bell said.

After identifying five potential sites, the city has narrowed its top picks down to three but they are now taking a closer look at one site in particular.

The current station is located at the corner of Hastings Way and Birch Street. The city's preferred location for the new fire station is just a few blocks away at the corner of Birch Street and Malden Avenue. Tuesday night, city council members voted on a relocation order to purchase the land off Malden Avenue.

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The fire chief wants the town to consider replacing the 97-year-old Central Fire Station – plans for which have been in the town’s capital improvement plan for more than a decade.

The request to the Finance Committee prompted town councilor to wonder aloud why the project has “been bumped and bumped and bumped.”

At a Dec. 1 workshop, Chief Ken Brillant listed several maintenance problems in need of immediate repair at the 21 Town Hall Place building, including cracks in the first-floor bays where equipment is parked. The cracks allow water and moisture to leak into the basement, where firefights exercise and eat meals.

Brillant’s presentation followed a memo he sent to the town manager Nov. 7, when he argued that routine maintenance and repairs won’t resolve the larger issues that make the station inadequate.

“There are many issues with the building and, for nearly 20 years, the town has recognized the need to plan for its replacement,” Brillant wrote.

Back when the floor was designed “they had horses in here,” he said in an interview Monday. The floor was replaced three times between 1963 and 1994.

Today, the concrete floor bears the weight of six emergency vehicles, which have difficulty passing through the station’s narrow doors and are housed like sardines in the cramped station, leaving inadequate room for cleaning and maintenance. 

Brillant enumerated problems both large and small. He pointed to areas where the building is not up to health, safety, and accessibility codes, has leaks, or where public safety staff are pressed for storage space.

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Firefighters have been spreading a little Christmas cheer in West Swindon this week by helping Santa visit local children in a vintage fire engine.

From providing sweets to youngsters to playing Christmas carols, the fire crew from Westlea has put on the event for the last 16 years while raising money for the Fire Fighters Charity - with this year's takings setting a new record in the event's history.

Firefighter Simon Owen, who coordinated the event, said: "The event has always been successful in fundraising for the charity. But this year it has surpassed all of our expectations as we've managed to raise over £800 so far but also the number of people coming out to say hello.

The Fire Fighters Charity provides help to around 11,000 beneficiaries every year including serving and retired personnel, their widowers and young dependants through the provision of sheltered accommodation, recuperative facilities, rehabilitation and therapy, as well as giving financial support to those who need it.

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It didn’t take long, or that many people, to push a 45,000-pound engine truck into the fire bay of the Bloomington Fire Department's Station No. 5 Tuesday afternoon.

Taking part in a firefighting tradition steeped in history, Bloomington firefighters, city officials and members of the community participated in a "push-in" ceremony of the new fire engine into the South Henderson Street station.

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The new vehicle is a 2016 Freightliner and is replacing a 1971 GMC military vehicle that the department is retiring from their fleet. The truck is outfitted with a 1,500-gallon water tank, a 200 gallon-per-minute pump, a foam system, a front bumper monitor controlled from inside the cab, and a hand controlled monitor behind the cab.

"Since we are a volunteer department, we can sometimes be short on help," explained Dawn VFD Chief R.L. Johnson. "In theory we can operate the truck's equipment with just two people. Since this truck is more machine oriented, we can fight the fire with fewer firefighters and it will help to take the fatigue off the firefighter."

Dawn VFD, established in 1974, serves a population of 3,500 over 828 square miles of Deaf Smith County.

Texas A&M Forest Service is committed to protecting lives and property through the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program, a cost-share program funded by the Texas State Legislature and administered by Texas A&M Forest Service. This program provides funding to rural VFDs for the acquisition of firefighting vehicles, fire and rescue equipment, protective clothing, dry-hydrants, computer systems and firefighter training.

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