Fire Station Siting

Fire protection and emergency response is a critical public service provided to communities. The importance of first responders is without question, saving lives, protecting property, preserving the environment and antiquities, and ensuring general safety and security. These services, however, are not cheap, often consuming a significant portion of a community’s annual budget. Associated costs for fire protection include building stations (and acquiring property), equipment, maintenance and staffing. Good planning and administrative oversight is therefore essential, especially given financial hardships faced by all communities and local governments. Such management includes anticipating future needs and deciding where new fire stations should be sited, but also reassessment of existing stations relative to changing demands for service. This chapter details issues of fire protection in a city in California experiencing sustained population growth and urban development. A location planning model is applied to support long term, cost effective fire station response through the siting of new facilities combined with strategic changes to the existing system.