After extensive site work that included three levels of retaining walls the new Fire Station #2 is beginning to come out of the ground. The new facility is being built on Fountain Hills Boulevard just north of Shea Boulevard.

Fountain Hills Rural/Metro Fire Chief Dave Ott said they have had to coordinate with several other entities including EPCOR Water and Salt River Project to relocate utilities. SRP still has some minor work to do. The station will share access off Fountain Hills Boulevard with EPCOR to allow the water company to get to a treatment plant backflush site.

Ott said they also had to make a slight design modification to allow the new, larger ladder truck to get inside the bay. Ott said they do not plan to operate the ladder from Station #2 but they would still like to be able to get it inside if necessary.

The fire department does expect to move into the new station before the end of this calendar year.

“Once we get the concrete (floors) poured I think things will go pretty quickly,” Ott said.

The important advantages of the new location include better overall response times and balancing the call load between stations, according to Ott.

The town’s contract with Rural/Metro calls for a five-minute response time 90 percent of the time. The department cannot meet that requirement in the southwest areas of town.

“I think we will have a quicker response to the entire south end of town,” Ott said.

An ambulance crew now housed at the shopping center where Fry’s grocery store is located will be relocated to a home base at the new station.

There will also be space dedicated to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in the new building.

The facility is designed at 9,600 square feet with three truck bays and personal space for six firefighters.

Fire Station #2 opened at its current location on Saguaro Boulevard south of Shea Boulevard in 1993. At the time the Fountain Hills Fire District was under contract to serve the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, and growth in the western parts of Fountain Hills was just beginning. Also at that time Rural/Metro was still operating in Scottsdale, which provided for smoother operations and coordination across community boundaries. Fountain Hills continues to have a mutual aid agreement with the Scottsdale Fire Department.