CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As the Corpus Christi London and Southside areas expand, Corpus Christi Fire Department is looking at a need for new stations.
Fire officials said they are considering response times from current stations to those areas and where they can build new ones to reduce those times. CCFD currently has eighteen fire stations and is looking to expand it to twenty in the near future.
Station 19 would be on the Southside and Station 20 would be in the London area. CCFD Deputy Fire Chief Doug Matthijetz said the goal for response is to be within four to six minutes from each fire station.
"Once we get out of that range, then it looks like, you know, we need to start looking at having another station to help cover some of that," Matthijetz said.
Matthijetz said Station 19 could be built on South Staples Street beyond South Texas Botanical Gardens. Station 20 could be built off Highway 286 in the London area. He said the locations were picked using data—determining travel time based on distance and time of day.
"As that London community is growing up, some of those are annexed by the cities," Matthijetz said. "If other want to be annexed by the cities, we need to provide that coverage to them."
Another factor for building two new stations is where the next closest station is. New homes on the Southside are covered by Station 17 on Yorktown Boulevard and the London area is covered by Station 6 on Weber Road and Station 18 on Ayers Street.
Matthijetz said if those stations are at a call, it could further increase response times if another station picks up a call for London or the Southside.
He said Stations 19 and 20 would also be designed with different zones inside them to limit health risks for firefighters. A hot zone would contain anything dirty that was brought back from a fire, a warm zone would have a locker room and shower to wash off anything dangerous, and a cold zone would be the living quarters.
"These stations are now designed for that aspect where can not, we're not getting the contaminates in the living area," Matthijetz said.
CCFD has about nine stations that are at least 50 years old. Since fire trucks are bigger now with more equipment, the new stations would be designed with larger bays for them to fit.
While Stations 19 and 20 remain part of the department's long-term plan, Matthijetz said there is urgency to acquire land as it gets harder to come by and more expensive.
"Hopefully we can, at least, start looking at purchasing the land for 19 and 20, and then, you know, get moving forward on design and construction after that," Matthijetz said.
Right now, there is no estimated completion date for Stations 19 and 20. Matthijetz said CCFD is currently working on Stations 3, 8 and 10, so the next step is for Stations 19 and 20 to be included on a future bond.