You may remember us reporting last October when the City of Sparks announced the closing on land for the new Fire Station 6 in the Pioneer Meadows Business Park.
This entire project started back in 2018 and now as we're almost halfway through 2024, construction is finally about to start.
Fire Station 6 will serve towards the north Sparks area and will also help with alternative aid to Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue who also responds to calls in that area.
Kevin Jakubos, division chief for administrative and training for Sparks Fire, says, "Essentially it's going to be the Vista Raley's up to the north end of Las Positas, our district boundary with Truckee Meadows. Pyramid is kind of our boundary to the east, and we'll serve the five ridges development that's kind of up over by Sun Valley."
Jakubos says this is the first time the City of Sparks is building a new fire station in the last 19 years.
He tells us it's important that Sparks have a new fire station because of how much the community has grown over the years.
"We have apartment complexes, we have middle schools, we an elementary school, we have a lot of development in this district," he said.
Since station 5 opened in 2005, Jakubos says response calls have increased from 4,000 calls a year to 15,000 calls.
"We have the same number of firefighters today than we do in 2005 and those firefighters are starting to get spread thin with all the responses that we have, so this is going to fill that void for us in the district," he said.
The total cost of this project came out to be $15 million. The new station can house 9 firefighters and will have 3 bays to allow for storage and engines. It will also be named after an honored firefighter.
"We ultimately will be naming this station in honor of Mike Foster, one of our fallen firefighter paramedics who gave nearly more than 20 years of dedicated service, and he was very passionate about the fire service," said Sparks Fire Department Chief Walt White.
Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson says he's excited to see Fire Station 6 build a relationship with the community.
"I'm just looking forward to seeing how it interacts with the community," he said. "Some of our older stations get visits from parents and kids who want to see a fire station and I think we'll get some of that in the beginning."
"I'm most looking forward to that ribbon cutting and seeing that first call run out of this station and knowing that we've reduced response times and increased service to the public," added White.
Chief Jakubos says they are aiming to finish construction and have their doors open in the fall of next year.
