MERIDIAN, Idaho — One of Idaho’s fastest-growing cities is expanding its fire department. First, Meridian Fire added 30 new firefighters. Then, it announced the addition of two new fire stations this year, one of which is now officially in service.
A hose uncoupling ceremony, which is a different version of a ribbon cutting, was held to celebrate the grand opening for Meridian Fire Station #7.
The department also had the traditional apparatus push-in ceremony. This ceremony dates back to the days of horse-drawn equipment when fire crews had to push the equipment into the bay.
Fire station #7 is one of two fire stations opening this year, with fire station #8 opening sometime in November.
During the fire department’s media days a few weeks ago, Fire Chief Kris Blume mentioned challenges the fire department faced, including response times.
One of the ways they are addressing response time with this new station is by partnering with the Ada County Paramedics. Station #7 was built with that partnership in mind.
Ada County Paramedics will be renting a portion of the building so a paramedics unit will be stationed there.
That unit will have a three-man crew along with a three-man fire crew.
According to Meridian Fire, this allows for faster response times for medical calls. Both Ada County paramedics and the fire department said, by working together and living together it will improve collaboration between the agencies and better serve the community.
"Having the equipment and the personnel strategically placed within the city to deploy, to start CPR, and to do all efforts to try to revive people," Deputy Chief of Administration Charlie Butterfield said. "Being able to do that efficiently and effectively with our partners is certainly a priority for us and something that we aim to do."
The design of the building will also help improve the health and safety of the firefighters.
“There are new design features that have come out, a lot of research has been conducted to the exposure of firefighters to carcinogenic material when we go to structure fires,” Deputy Chief Butterfield said. “So, we've actually incorporated within this building abilities to reduce that exposure, both through technology and design to make a safer work environment for our firefighters.”
An interesting thing to point out, Chief Charlie Butterfield mentioned the address for station #7 is 6343 and it's those last three numbers that are of significance for the fire service.
343 is the number of firefighters who died 22 years ago on September 11 and Chief Butterfield said he wanted to memorialize the efforts of those men and women that lost their lives on that fateful day.
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