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Newman Lake unveils new fire station

David Vanderostyne, right, smiles as he looks over the interior of the new Newman Lake fire station Saturday during an opening in Newman Lake, Wash. Vanderostyne, who has served as a volunteer firefighter with the station, also was the structural engineer of record in building the new station. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Nina Culver nculver47@gmail.com

Music by the East Valley High School band and a hose-uncoupling ceremony ushered in a new era Saturday as Newman Lake Fire and Rescue officially opened its first new fire station in 50 years.

About 200 people gathered for the ceremony and to take tours of the new Station 1 at 9324 N. Starr Road. The fire district first bought the property in 2001, said Fire Chief Keith Yamane.

“This has been in the planning for quite some time now,” he said to the crowd. “This was a vision long before I came here.”

It took two tries to pass a construction bond, but voters approved a $1.1 million bond in 2014. The new station has a spacious truck bay with room for five trucks. The old station was so small and cramped that the concrete pillars between the bay doors were gouged from being repeatedly hit by the trucks on their way in and out. It also violated numerous safety and building codes.

There’s plenty of room between trucks in the new building and the doors are wide. There’s also an exhaust system to vent the truck bay when an engine is running.

“It’s beautiful,” Yamane said. “I think the building committee did a great job.”

The new station also has offices, a meeting room, kitchen, small living room and sleeping quarters for four people.

Yamane said he will spend the next two or three months organizing a residential volunteer program. The district has only a handful of paid employees; the rest are volunteers. The new sleeping quarters will allow volunteers who live outside the district boundaries to work an overnight shift. There are also plans to have two volunteers live at the station full time.

Having volunteers on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week should help reduce response times, Yamane said.

“It’s not a long delay right now, but hopefully it will reduce it,” he said.

The district has not yet decided what to do with the old Station 1 located just down the road. Yamane said the fire commissioners plan to wait a year to see how much the old station is used for training and storage before making a decision.