The 12,128-square-foot Arvada Fire Station No. 9, the first newly built fire station in the city in more than 40 years, is up and running, serving the quickly growing Candelas neighborhood and aiming to allow for improved, faster, response times in northwest Arvada.
Growth within the city and an upward trend of increasing calls for emergency services convinced fire officials that the $6.2 million firehouse is a necessary investment.
“Using data modeling, it became apparent that expanding our reach and ability to deliver life-saving services to a rapidly growing part of our community was essential,” said Battalion Chief Matt Osier, Arvada Fire Protection District.
Station No. 9, the first new station in the Arvada Fire Protection District since 1979, is outfitted with a fire engine — No. 59 — and a wildfire brush truck but has space to grow. Four firefighters, including a paramedic and an EMT, staff the firehouse in 48-hour shifts with three crew rotations, serving an area that has grown to house about 4,500 residents.
The station, 9276 Wilkerson Court near Colorado 72 and Candelas Parkway, is expected to help lighten other stations’ loads. Overall, Arvada fire’s 911 incident response calls have risen every year in the past decade. The department responded to 12,761 calls for service in 2013, with the number of responses increasing to 17,691 in 2021.
Call response times in the northwest part of the city, including the Candelas area, are about 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The new station should help reduce response times in an area where residential construction is continuing at a brisk pace, fire officials said.
The new station, where its firefighters will spend a third of their lives, features a large kitchen with natural light, four refrigerators, a gas stove and stainless-steel cabinetry; a living room with theater-style seating, and a 1,127-square-foot gym.
“Mealtime is a family event, it’s a nice place to meet up,” said Captain Donny Varra, who played a part in the station’s design.
The fire station, which includes a loft area above the engine and vehicles bay with second-story window openings so firefighters can train for ladder rescues and other exercises, was designed and built to last, fire officials say.
“We designed it to be a 70-year station, so we don’t have to remodel,” Varra said. “There are concrete floors, no carpet, the hard-surface countertops should last forever.”
The station also includes energy-saving measures like computer-controlled lighting, and specialized air handling and exhaust systems to ensure firefighters’ health and safety.
To further protect firefighters, who according to federal research have a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer than the rest of the American population, a decontamination corridor, used immediately after firefighting assignments and designed for cleaning and disinfecting contaminated equipment and tools, is set up just off the fire engine bay.
Station 9 is the district’s newest addition, but prior existing stations have had remodels and complete rebuilds over the years. Arvada Fire Station No. 3, at 7300 Kipling St., was demolished and rebuilt in 2020-2021. Station No. 8, 6385 Quaker St., was replaced in 2008 after a voter-approved initiative in 2005.
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