Construction begins on new NE Bend fire station

Construction is underway on a brand new fire station in Bend. When complete, the station will sit next to the 15th Street Bend police headquarters, by Pilot Butte.

Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District No. 1 is responsible for the $4 million project. The district will lease the station to the city of Bend, once it is finished.

The station’s location was chosen in large part because currently it takes longer for ambulances and fire engines to get to Bend’s east side from stations to the south and west.

The fire district’s executive director, Gary Marshall, said the new station, the fifth in the city (plus one in Tumalo, where a new station is being built), will reduce the time it takes to answer calls in the coverage area, which extends well beyond the city limits.

“Our response times there were fairly long. So that’s why we decided this was the location for this station, to get quicker response times,” Marshall said.

“We have higher density in the city limits now, so we just knew this was the area to put our next station,” he added.

The station will focus heavily on medical calls, with several ambulances at the site. And the number of staff on duty will start out small.

“Probably put a minimum of three to four, so it would be most likely a captain and possibly two to three personnel, depending on what kind of apparatus we put in the station,” Marshall said.

“But as the community grows, as the city of Bend grows, and as we get more paramedics, more firefighters we have the ample room to add more staffing here for years to come,” he said.

The station will be designed to mimic the former downtown station, built in the 1920s.

It will hold a conference room, gym and men’s and women’s dormitories, and officials hope it will become a cornerstone and pride of the community.

The new fire station is expected to be complete in about a year.