Bend Fire & Rescue marks opening of Pilot Butte station

Says it will cut response times by 30 seconds, when every second counts

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend Fire & Rescue held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Thursday afternoon for its new northeast Bend fire station by Pilot Butte.

The ceremony kicked off with Bend Fire Pipes and Drums, in addition to a ceremonial "passing of the key."

The new station will also be utilized by the nearby Bend Police Department headquarters for training purposes.

Currently, the station is not fully staffed, but crews will be pulled from both the east and west fire stations.

Funding for the station is provided by the Deschutes Rural Fire Protection District No. 2, and the station is expecting to start taking calls within a month.

Battalion Chief Dave Howe said the new fire station is expected to help firefighters improve response times.

"We feel that putting this station here will cut our overall response time to calls by about 30 seconds," Howe said. "Which is a huge amount -- it is a very significant drop in our response times. Response times is one of the main ways we measure how we are doing."

All of the fire stations in Bend, including the new Tumalo station, are owned by the rural fire district and leased to the city.