Temporary fire stations unlikely in Mesa

Even with the passage of bonds to build several new stations, Mesa's fire department can't keep up with the demands of a growing, diverse city.

So at the behest of the City Council's public safety committee, fire officials penciled out the idea of building temporary stations to tide the city over until it has money for permanent ones.

They took their analysis to the committee on Monday and by the time they were done, no one was keen on the idea.

Deputy Chief Jim Bloomer said a typical temporary station would cost $1.2 million at the outset. That includes site work and everything else needed to accommodate a double-wide trailer that would serve as living quarters and offices, and a 48-by-60-foot enclosed metal building for trucks and equipment.

Two-thirds of that money would be lost when temporary facilities were replaced by permanent ones, Bloomer said.

Fire Chief Harry Beck said the department actually did consider a temporary setup at one of the sites for which voters approved bonds this month. Station 218 is to be built at Eighth Street and Alma School Road, and Beck said the department determined a temporary facility there "would simply be cost-prohibitive. In that case it was over $1 million to adapt that site and set that station up."

That would pay for a station designed to last, at most, five years. Permanent stations, which are designed to last half a century or more, now cost between $4 million and $5 million.

Beck did not completely rule out the idea of temporary stations. "If we find the right situation and we can make it work we certainly would be open to doing that," he said.

But after the meeting he told The Republic that building a temporary station might be the easy part.

Money would still have to be found for equipment and staffing. Buying and outfitting a standard pumper truck can cost $600,000, and it costs more than $700,000 a year to staff and operate a fire station.