ESTER VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT

Ester Volunteer Fire Department – Station Addition Project Summary Broadening a Foundation of Excellence for Life Safety and Property Conservation in Interior Alaska   The Request:    $2,000,000 in FY08 capital funding The Department The Ester Volunteer Fire Department is a full service fire, rescue, hazardous materials response, and EMS provider. The nearly 30 volunteer firefighters and medics provide these services to the 3500 residents of the Ester Fire Service Area.  Our district contains residential and commercial buildings, major electrical infrastructure, the only railroad into the interior, and the busiest highway in Alaska, the George Parks Highway.  Volunteers are on call day and night and respond every day of the year. The Need The fire department has outgrown the existing fire station, which was constructed in 1985. Since then, membership has doubled and emergency responses have tripled.  In addition to more personnel and calls, regulatory agencies have placed significantly more training and compliance requirements on the department.  Traffic volume on the Parks highway is exponentially larger when compared to 1982, requiring more resources to answer the growing number of emergencies.  Finally, with the expansion of the population in the fire district, and the corresponding growth in the number of houses, comes an increased need for more apparatus to supply water during a structure fire. All of these demands can be met by providing more useable fire station space. The Project The project, as designed, will increase the size of the apparatus bay, and add a small dormitory area to the existing station.  It was conceived, and first requested over 10 years ago to be an economical, efficient way to address the growth of the department and district, and has now become a vital need.  It was considered the top emergency services priority of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in FY07, yet remains unfunded. §      The apparatus bay addition will house two apparatus that currently sit outside in the harsh environment.  These two vehicles can not be used as emergency response apparatus in winter due to the cold temperatures.  In the summer, wildland fire equipment must be stored inside and loaded before each response.  Stationing these vehicles indoors will allow faster response times and decrease maintenance costs.  The bay addition would also allow for an ambulance.  An ambulance in-district would reduce response time by 8 – 12 minutes. Finally, one of the four new apparatus bays would accommodate future growth. §      The dormitory addition will allow live-in firefighters to be housed in a modern, code compliant facility.  The existing housing at EVFD consists of a cold, leaky, pipeline-era ATCO unit.  New living quarters will allow us to attract and retain resident firefighters and medics by offering improved living conditions.  Volunteer Fire Departments throughout the nation can attest to the fact that resident volunteer firefighter programs are the most effective method of reducing response times and improving the level of service provided to the community, at little to no cost to the tax payers.  Our current live-in program has trimmed an average of 3 – 5 minutes from our response time, but we struggle to retain live-ins because of our substandard living quarters. Current Progress This project has been estimated to cost $2.775 million, of which the department has raised $775,000 in grants and appropriations in the last five years.  We are seeking the rest of the funding to construct this necessary project.