Scene shifts for Fire Department: New station means staff, coverage changes

Kalispell's new fire station is tentatively scheduled to open on March 15.

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

And the $3 million, 12,000-square-foot station just southwest of Costco will be the primary responder for a major portion of Kalispell's fires as well as ambulance runs beyond city limits.

"We're looking forward to providing better service to the north end of the city," Kalispell Fire Chief Randy Brodehl said.

The Kalispell Fire Department has been aiming to respond to a fire or accident within five minutes 90 percent of the time - a goal currently difficult to achieve since the downtown fire station is eight to 13 minutes from some parts of northern Kalispell.

Response times are expected to be one to five minutes in northern Kalispell with the new station.

The fire department has been expanding over the past couple of years, growing from 18 firefighters in four shifts to 30 firefighters in three shifts.

The department added three firefighters between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2005, and another six since - a mix of veterans and rookies.

The department currently has nine people going through training that will finish at the end of this month. All 30 firefighters are also trained as paramedics, meaning everyone can staff fire engines and ambulances.

With 10 firefighters on each shift, the department expects to divide them as follows:

-Six firefighters, one fire engine and two ambulances will be at the new north station. They will be first responders to all calls roughly north of Crestline Avenue plus all county ambulance calls because they will be able to leave Kalispell quicker than a downtown station's ambulance.

While area volunteer fire departments will get to county accident scenes first with their paramedics and fire engines, they don't have transport capabilities. Consequently the rural rescue crews will initially save and stabilize accident victims, while Kalispell's ambulances will transport any patients handled by the Creston, Lakeside, Somers, West Valley, Smith Valley, South Kalispell and Evergreen fire departments. Kalispell also will back up other ambulance units elsewhere in the valley.

Kalispell's new station also has a 2 1/2-story tower, which will enable that site to be the department's training center.

-Four firefighters, one fire engine, one ladder truck and one backup ambulance will stay at the downtown station, which also is the department's headquarters.

Brodehl hopes to add a ladder truck and 15 additional firefighters over the next few years, depending on how the department's budget evolves.

He hopes eventually to put 15 firefighters on each shift with minimums of five people downtown and eight at the north station. Those numbers assume that two of each shift's 15 will be on vacation or absent for other reasons.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com