Station 34 is one of seven fire stations strategically scattered across the fire district. It was first built on Royal Street back in 1984. Almost 40 years later, it has been torn down and replaced with a brand new $4 million station.
Fire Chief Bob Zanetti says before they could tear it down, they had to find a replacement site for station personnel and equipment. They started looking in 2019 and found the city-owned Mine Bench site, where the former Ontario Mine and headframe still stand.
“We were able to land that spot up there. And we put two tiny trailers up there. We got the approval from the board to build the new station and tore the old station down. And in 2022, we moved the crews down to the Mine Bench. And it's been a challenge for them to operate out of there. But you know, service was never compromised. And the project obviously took a lot longer than we anticipated with having a record winter that we had last year and some supply issues. So, the project went up about eight months over.”
The station was originally built in the ‘80s as a garage for equipment and then a second story was added with small living quarters, one bathroom and no bedrooms. Prior to the 2002 Olympics, he says they added a couple of bedrooms. But given its age, he says it just didn’t make sense to keep it.
“It just showed its time. It wasn't seismically stable. It leaks, we even, when we put a new roof on it, we outgrew it immensely. And so, it was time to put up a new station up there. It looks a lot better than the old station. It’s going to house five firefighters now. And it has three bays instead of two bays. So, we're going to be able to put adequate equipment up there for all the development that's going up Empire Canyon, it's just going to be a huge asset.”
They moved into the new station last week. It’s 6,000 square feet; half of it is used for living space, the other half is for apparatus. Taxes didn’t go up to pay for it. Zanetti says they used impact fees collected from the Silver Lake area and reserve capital funds, so no bonding was needed.
He says the next capital project will likely renovate the Pinebrook station, Station 33, on Kilby Road in the next five years.
