Paulina Pineda
The Press Democrat
(TNS)
Jan. 24—Construction of Santa Rosa’s new fire station in Fountaingrove could start this fall marking another milestone in the northeastern hillside neighborhood’s long recovery following the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
The Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday approved awarding a contract to local firms Wright Contracting LLC and COAR Design Group to design and build a permanent station on Fountaingrove Parkway and Stagecoach Road that will replace the one on Newgate Court destroyed in the fire.
City officials hope the new station improves response times in the neighborhood and helps the department be better prepared for the next large emergency as it’ll provide room for additional engines and staff during extreme weather.
Fire Chief Scott Westrope said his department is excited about this next chapter after years of planning.
“It has been a long process to get to this point and taken a lot of work and collaboration with several partners and we’re really looking forward to being the crown jewel of that corner,” he said. “When you lose a community asset like a fire station, it’s a hit to the community, but we are able to rebuild and we’re building something better and stronger and I really think it puts the cap on recovery efforts in general.”
The department has been operating out of a temporary station on Parker Hill Road since late 2018 but the building doesn’t meet building requirements for the wildland urban interface, where wildfire risks are higher. It will be dismantled after the new station is built.
The station replacement represents some of the last recovery work being carried out by the city related to the Tubbs Fire, which alone destroyed more than 4,600 homes, including more than 3,000 in Santa Rosa, and killed 22 people.
City officials anticipate utility work at the site will begin in the summer and construction will follow in the fall. The project is slated to be completed in spring 2025.
The total project cost is estimated at $24.8 million and the bulk of expenses are being paid through a $16.9 million federal grant with remaining costs being covered by fire recovery and general fund dollars.
Faster, improved service to Fountaingrove
The new Fire Station 5 is planned on a 2.1-acre portion of the Keysight Technologies campus about a mile downhill from its predecessor.
Council members in February 2022 approved purchasing the property from Keysight to relocate the fire station. The acquisition, completed in April, cost $205,000.
Though the old station was touted as an advantage to fighting fires in the city’s northeastern hillside when it opened in 2015, the city decided to relocate the station after a review of department coverage and deployment plans following the Tubbs Fire found the Newgate Court station was in a dangerously fire-prone area and too small to meet needs.
The new location is expected to provide several advantages for firefighting efforts in Fountaingrove.
The station is closer to Highway 101 where new homes in Fountaingrove are cropping up and future development is planned. It is expected to shave off about a minute in response time from the temporary station on Parker Hill Road, Westrope said.
The larger site also allowed the city to design a bigger station.
The new 8,690-square-foot headquarters ― nearly double the size of the old station ― will feature three apparatus bays and six rooms to allow for additional staffing during red flag warnings and other extreme weather events.
There is also room to transform the station into a command center and set up a refuge for residents during emergencies,