By Scott Turner
The city of Huntsville opened a new fire station in Limestone County to keep up with a growing population.
It may not be the last, City Administrator John Hamilton said at the ribbon cutting for Fire Station 20 at 13175 Burgreen Road.
“We’re cutting a ribbon on another piece of infrastructure that is a reflection of the dynamic, exciting growth that we have,” he said.
“We’ve got a few more areas we’ve got to look at,” Huntsville Fire and Rescue Chief Howard McFarlen added. “We’re trying to figure where our priorities are.”
The new facility is designed to improve public safety response in one of the city’s fastest-growing areas and help homeowners save on insurance premiums.
“It will ensure a faster response time to everything from fires and medical emergencies to crashes and storm response,” McFarlen said. “The new station will also expand the City’s ISO (Insurance Services Office) Class 1 rating to the northwestern portion of the City, reducing insurance rates in the area.”
The ISO rating system grades an area’s fire protection service, with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst. The rating system impacts the cost of premiums.
Fire Station 20 is a two-bay, 6,858-square-foot facility. It includes the captain’s office, two captain bedrooms, seven private bedrooms, kitchen, dayroom, dining room, exercise room, turnout gear room and laundry room.
Nola | VanPeursem Architects designed the station, which was built by Pearce Construction Company.
Hamilton said the station cost about $5 million to build. He said it cost about another $3 million to $4 million to outfit.
“Each of those trucks is about another million dollars,” Hamilton said. “The trucks are the most expensive equipment, but there’s lots of other apparatus and things you see around, equipment and stuff.”
The station will have three 24-hour shifts. On each shift, it will have a captain, a driver and three firefighters.
Fire Station 20 is the City’s second in Limestone County; Station 18 is located on Greenbrier Road. McFarlen and District 5 City Councilman John Meredith said that part of the city had been served previously by the fire station on Jeff Road.
McFarlan said he wasn’t sure how far the Heff Road Station was from the area “but our goal was to make sure the five miles that we had to reach (to the area) overlapped.”
“And it does,” he said. “And we’ve got everything between here and there overlapping. And that was our goal.”
McFarlan said the new station will improve the response time “tremendously.”
“We try to make probably under a five-minute response time anywhere we’re at,” he said. “That’s from the time you dial 9-1-1 to when we have a truck there. That’s the top end. We’re usually a lot less. We’re usually about three minutes.”
McFarlan credited Meredith in pushing the need for the station in the area. Meredith – who represents this part of the city – credited residents.
“Constituents asked for better fire protection in this part of the city and now they have a facility that will significantly enhance fire safety and emergency services for those living in the westernmost portions of our city,” Meredith said.
“The men and women of Huntsville Fire & Rescue (HFR) are heroes who protect lives and property,” Mayor Tommy Battle said. “We are excited to open the new fire station and create a more efficient department that can better serve residents and businesses in northwest Huntsville.”
Meredith urged residents living within five miles of the station to contact their insurance providers to ask about cheaper rates.
