Steve Lord
Beacon-News (Aurora, Ill.)
(TNS)

An Aurora City Council committee on Wednesday recommended plans for two new fire stations to be built on the far East Side of the city.

Fire Station 13 would be on the southeast corner of Bilter Road and Nan Street, just east of Farnsworth Avenue, on land the city has owned since 2015. Fire Station 9 would be on land at 7S300 Eola Road, just south of Liberty Street.

Both stations would be about the same size, and would include a ladder truck, an engine and an ambulance.

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Both stations are being built to improve call response times in the northeast part of town.

Michael Kaufman, assistant chief for support services for the Aurora Fire Department, said response time to the area to be served by Fire Station 13 – which includes Chicago Premium Outlets mall and all the development along Farnsworth Avenue and Bilter Road – is “significant” because it comes from either a station near Fox Valley Mall, or downtown.

“This would cut response time in half,” he said of the planned new station.

Response time is key to the locations for the new stations. A study done several years ago pinpointed the best locations for stations. According to fire officials, the goal in moving and constructing new stations is to get response times below six minutes for regular fire responses and four minutes for emergency medical responses.

While the city has had a fire station in mind for the Bilter Road and Nan Street location since 2015, residents along Nan Street said they were concerned about what the station there might bring.

Michael and Diane Mutersbaugh, who have lived on Nan Street for about 40 years, said they were concerned about fire trucks on Nan being too much.

“It’s the wrong move to put that kind of activity there, with our children,” Diane Mutersbaugh said.

Michael Mutersbaugh said the station would be better located on land the city has purchased further east on Bilter Road.

“The city is dug in like a tick on a hound on this,” he said. “Why can’t the city have a new fire station the way they want it just down the street? It don’t make any sense.”

But city officials said the 2.5-acre Bilter and Nan site would be perfect for the about 19,000-square-foot station. When leaving for an emergency, all the fire vehicles would exit onto Bilter Road. They would only use Nan Street when returning to the station, said Ed Sieben, the city’s Planning and Zoning administrator.

He also said the station would be 80 feet from Nan, with a lot of landscaping, including a six-foot-high solid wood fence there.

He said that five of eight city fire stations are located in residential neighborhoods, and there have been “no problems.”

Ald. William Donnell, 4th Ward, said Fire Station 7 is two blocks from his house, and there is little disruption because of sirens or traffic.

“The neighbors think it’s been very positive,” he said.

Ald. Michael Saville, 6th Ward, said the city has “long recognized the need for a fire station in that area.”

He did ask if the city had considered some of the land it has purchased along Bilter Road to the east.

Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer, said the other properties the city owns are “slated for other types of development.”

The Bilter and Nan site is in Aurora Township, so the city would hav

Anthony Salamone
The Morning Call
(TNS)

Easton officials hope a new online tool will prod residents and merchants to provide information for firefighters who might be dispatched to a blaze at their addresses.

The Easton Fire Department has launched a Community Connect portal to coincide with Fire Prevention Week, which begins Oct. 6, Chief Henry Hennings said.

The free service will let residents and business owners upload pertinent information about building or business occupants, and their needs in the event of an emergency. That might include that a building houses someone who is bedridden, or contains stored hazardous materials.

The portal can include emergency contact information, relevant fire alarm system components and their locations, and special hazards such as oxygen cylinders in the property.

The information could help first responders do their jobs faster and more efficiently, potentially preventing serious damage, injury or deaths, according to Hennings. It also ensures that information provided to the department is current. When an emergency is dispatched, an alert goes to the fire department’s mobile response system listing the incident address.

Hennings said anyone in the city can participate. Subsequent property owners would have no access to information entered by previous owners, he said.

Hennings said anyone who wants more information can contact firefighter Ian Insley at 610-250-7762, or go to communityconnect.io/info/pa-easton online.

©2024 The Morning Call. Visit mcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

October 29, 2024 | 1 ET

In this webinar, presented by Chase Downey, you’ll learn about station wear history and trends, along with the basics of a systems level approach to PPE. All in the name of giving you extra layers of protection during exposure to fire above (in this case, below) and beyond your bunker gear.

October 17, 2024 | 1 ET

As Anthony Kastros has noted, the American fire service continues to deal with a leadership pandemic. Yet new leaders are emerging at all levels to fill the vacuum, none perhaps more critically than in the role of the company officer. In the first of a series of discussions on fire department leadership, Rachael Staebell and Bassel Ibrahim join Kelly Crummer of Firehouse Subs for a roundtable discussion on leading at the company level.