Fire Station No. 4, located on Middlefield Road next to Mitchell Park, is currently being renovated for the first time since 1953. The 18.3 million station will be better designed to meet today’s emergency response demands, with the facility expected to stay operational during disasters like a major earthquake.
According to Fire Chief Stephen Lindsay, the plans call for improvements to multiple apparatus bays, firefighter living quarters, and an emergency operations room.
“Even the roof and a lot of the station design is kind of dated and don’t really serve the modern needs of fire response in the city,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay said Fire Station No.4 is positioned to reach several parts of Palo Alto quickly, so its location plays a major role in the department’s response and coverage.
“And so when we look at locations for emergency response, our station four is in a great location,” Lindsay said, “Not only does it [the new fire station] support the south end of Palo Alto, but in other situations, it may be going to Rinconada, it may be going into downtown.”
According to Lindsay, the station is currently too small for modern fire engines.
“When the station was designed, it was designed in a time when fire engines were much smaller, so even ambulances struggle to fit into the station,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay said that the new station will not only be able to comfortably fit two fire engines, but it will even fit a reserve fire engine.
“Instead of being able to squeeze just an ambulance and barely a fire engine in there, this will have room for a larger fire engine, a full-size ambulance, and also it has an apparatus bay in the back for a reserve rig,” Lindsay said. “We like to keep a reserve ambulance or a reserve fire engine at our stations, in case one breaks down, so that we don’t have interruptions to service.”
Lindsay said this station will support the community even better in the future.
“[We are] future-proofing of this station, we’re building it once, and it has flexibility to deploy whatever apparatus and staff we determine is the best out of the station,” Lindsay said.