DeKalb fire chief says fourth fire station could bring call response to 4-minute gold standard

DeKALB – DeKalb Fire Chief Mike Thomas said this week that building a fourth fire station could help first responders shorten 911 call time on the city’s southwest side to 4 minutes, a gold standard for the DeKalb Fire Department.

DeKalb city leaders are looking to improve the fire department’s response to calls for service coming from the city’s southwest side by building a fourth fire station on South Malta Road.

No vote was taken by the DeKalb City Council Monday, though further discussion and action on a potential fourth fire station is expected when a fiscal 2024 budget is presented in August. The discussion was part of the city’s 5-year-plan for the fire department.

City Manager Bill Nicklas said the need for a fourth station is evident.

“A lot of our calls are going there and an increasing number are going in the southwest side not only to serve residents in that area,” Nicklas said. “There’s some commercial businesses, of course. But also the blossoming, burgeoning I guess you would say industrial investment on the southwest side of the community. … In looking at the 4 minute response coverage, we are deficient dramatically on the southwest side more than any other quadrant in the city.”

[ Fourth fire station in DeKalb? $4M proposal could improve response times, city staff say ]

Thomas said a crew from fire station No. 3 at 950 W. Dresser Road is able to get to the southwest quadrant of the city in about 6 ½ minutes, station two in 7 minutes and station one in 8 ½ minutes.

The city’s fire department generally recognizes 4 minutes as the gold standard for response time as recognized by both the National Fire Protection Agency and Insurance Service Office, according to city documents.

Fifth Ward Alderman Scott McAdams said he would like to see that quality care by first responders is extended across the rest of the city to all.

“I would think it wouldn’t matter where you live, you should be able to call and immediately get to the hospital,” McAdams said.

Mayor Cohen Barnes questioned what happens if there are dual calls for service incurring at the same time.

Thomas replied, saying it’s a “whole domino effect” at that point.

The DeKalb Fire Department operates three stations across the city currently: Fire Station No. 1 at 700 Pine St., built in 1972, serves the central downtown and northeast side of DeKalb, according to the city. Fire Station No. 2 at 1154 S. Seventh St. was built in 1957 and serves the south side of the city. Fire Station No. 3, built in 1994 at 950 W. Dresser Road, serves the city’s northwest and west sides.

When a call goes out, one station’s crew might respond to a call while another station’s crew may be called in to to provide mutual aid that same geographical area in the original crew’s absence.

If a fourth fire station were built and more firefighters/paramedics hired, more staff would mean 911 calls can be responded to more quickly and not take away first responder staff from other surrounding fire stations, city staff have argued.

In 2022, the fire department had 2,744, or 37%, overlapping calls for service noted in its annual report. The NFPA recommends staffing and/or facility changes when dual calls for service incur, according to city documents.

The city currently owns a one-acre property at the north end of the Schnucks subdivision and several lots west of the intersection with Annie Glidden Road and is eying the site for the construction of a fourth fire station, according to city documents.

Nicklas said the preliminary cost to finance a new fire station is a little more than $4 million.

The city intends to pay for the facility’s construction using a general obligation bond, officials said. In addition, the staffing and pension costs would be covered by the General Fund and the Ground Emergency Medical Transportation Fund.

The city’s five-year fire department plan would help guide plans to improve response times for residents who live in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh wards, according to the proposal

The city is anticipating that a fourth fire station would be move-in ready by January 2025, according to city documents.