New fire stations nearly complete

WASILLA — The Central Mat-Su Fire Department is waiting to take over two brand new fire stations and looking for people to staff them.

One station is on Fairview Loop near Snowshoe Elementary. The other is just up Horizon Drive from Knik-Goose Bay Road.

Tarra Mellon, the department’s assistant in charge of public education, said that the way it works is that each firefighter is assigned to the nearest fire station to where he or she lives. When a page goes out, the firefighters go to that station, start up the engines and tankers, and drive to the fire.

The new stations aren’t in service yet but will be soon. The department is shuffling some of its firefighters around so that some will respond to the two new stations.

“We don’t have a lot of responders that live in those areas so we need people to help,” Mellon said.

The department trains responders for free and once a person is on the department’s roster he or she becomes a “paid on call” responder.

“They’re paid on call so anytime they’re training or anytime that they’re doing anything for the fire department they’ll be paid,” Mellon said.

Mellon said the department also hopes that the surrounding communities will come to think of these new stations as their own. During their construction, both were broken into. The one on Horizon was hit twice. And the contractor working to build the one of Fairview Loop had equipment stolen, too.

The fire stations filled a couple of holes in the department’s coverage area. Some homeowners in the Fairview Loop area had to pay exorbitant homeowners insurance fees because they were not within five miles of a station. Now they are.

Down on Horizon Drive, the station isn’t the farthest station heading toward Knik Arm. That honor belongs to the station on Point MacKenzie Road. But, again, there was a hole in fire protection. That station on Horizon — dubbed station 6-3 — is the bigger of the two new facilities and has a little extra feature none of the other Central stations has.

“There is training rooms at station 6-3 we also have our first fire pole,” Mellon said. “It’s a two-story station and it has four bedrooms.”

Which means responders will be able to stay there if the station is to be staffed around the clock. The big station in downtown Wasilla, station 6-1, also has sleeping quarters but it’s one big dorm room for all the responders.

The station on Fairview Loop is much less fancy — a couple of bays for the trucks and an office upstairs. Mellon said the idea is that the station can be added on to. There might be two or more expansions in its future, which could bring in things like sleeping quarters. At any rate, the department is inviting the public to a pair of opening celebrations next month. The station on Horizon will have its opening on Dec. 4. The one on Fairview will have its celebration a week later on Dec. 11. Mellon promises refreshments and a slideshow.

“We’re just making sure people know we’re there in their community,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.