After decades of being housed in an outdated, deteriorating firehouse, city firefighters are now living and operating out of a brand-new building. The City of Kodiak Fire Department was first established in 1940 and since then has mostly operated out of the firehouse at 1240 Mill Bay Road.
Rich Gonzalez is the fire chief for the city fire department.
“It just feels more professional," he said of the new firehouse. "You can see it and the guys are just excited to come to work. It feels like a firehouse is what they are telling me.”
He took over the department last summer, months after longtime Kodiak firefighter Frank Dorner retired from the chief job.
Gonzalez remembers spending time in the firehouse on Lower Mill Bay Road from when he was a Kodiak firefighter – 25 years ago. It wasn’t great then, either.
“One of the biggest differences right now is we have windows. Over there [in the old fire station] it was like being in a dungeon," he said. "So it was not only were you tired, it was also very depressing.”
The multi-million-dollar building has three levels, including roof access for rappel training, five dorm-style bunk rooms with plush mattresses, a well-equipped, modern kitchen, and several showers, including one specifically for decontamination.
“So if we get back, guys have some kind of contaminant on their gear or something, we can just hose them off here and then they can come in here, leave their gear out here and they can shower in here.”
The fire station has been built with efficiency in mind. From the way the garage bay doors open to the exhaust system that ventilates the building, Gonzalez said many of the new features save firefighters time when they are responding to an emergency call.
“We have five different bays here and the way its setup is we have our first new medic right here, Gonzalez said. "As soon as you come out of the doors, the guys come out of their sleeping quarters, they’re right into the ambulance.”
Last month alone in January, the city fire department responded to 90 calls for service, mostly for medical assistance.
“And so, the doors are automatic, I mean you hit the button they open up. It’s like literally 10 seconds, I think, and they’re open," Gonzalez said.
The old fire station has garage style doors that require at least one firefighter to manually open and close them each time – so the new ones could literally save time and lives.
City fire department staffing is looking good, too. Gonzalez says he expects to fill every firefighter position by this summer. That’s enough to meet national staffing standards with five responders, one officer and four firefighters, every 48 hour-shift. All of the department's firefighters are also trained as emergency medical technicians.
The next batch of four recruits are expected to graduate into full-time firefighters this spring. Right now, the department has job openings for a fire captain and one more firefighter/EMT. Gonzalez told KMXT that the city fire department hasn’t been fully staffed in roughly a decade.
So how much did this fancy firehouse cost? About $24.4 million, though the city is only paying for 10% of that. Federal and state money is paying for the rest. Interim City Manager Chris Hladick told the Kodiak Daily Mirror that after the city council approved a final change order for $178,000 last month, the project has stayed on budget around the original $24.3 million.
“A lot of people jumped through a lot of hoops to make this happen and we’re extremely grateful that it finally came to fruition,” Gonzalez said.
He said former fire chiefs, city officials, state legislators and others contributed. Many of them will be recognized during a community event this weekend.
The fire station is hosting a public grand opening beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Gonzalez said the ceremony will include more traditional things like a ribbon cutting, uncoupling the fire hoses and he will also officially put the firehouse into service via a radio call after the department pushes the first engine into the new station.
And as for the old firehouse on Lower Mill Bay Road, the Kodiak City Council has not decided what to do with it yet.
