As old Cedar Rapids Central Fire Station comes down, department looks to future

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department made it nearly 100 years without tearing down a central station.

The old central station at 427 First St. SE, which was in use from 1917 to 1985, is still standing. But on Tuesday, that streak came to an end when demolition crews took down the former central station at 222 Third St. NW.

That station served the fire department for 23 years, beginning in 1985 and continuing until the flood of 2008 made it inhospitable. It was destroyed in a matter of hours.

“I guess it's easier to demolish a building than build one,” said Greg Buelow, the fire department's public information officer and special projects coordinator.

The destruction of the old central station marked a bittersweet moment for current and former Cedar Rapids firefighters. One on hand, many firefighters said goodbye to the place where they had spent a third of their lives. On the other hand, they only need to look a mile to the east so see the nearly completed station at 713 First Ave. SE, which will serve as the new central station.

“We've had at least a dozen retired firefighters go by the (former) station, stop, take pictures, tell stories,” Buelow said. “A lot of memories were created there. They spend at least one third of their life there while they're working as a shift firefighter at a station…That becomes a second home to them.”

The old 26,671 square foot central station was home to engine, ladder and rescue companies, as well as hazardous materials and special operations. When the flood hit, Buelow said staff was told to expect one to two feet of water inside the building.

Instead, they got nearly 10 feet.

“A lot of the fire station was destroyed,” Buelow said. “A lot of stuff inside it was destroyed, as well.”

When the water finally receded, mold grew into the cinder blocks. With the building unable to be occupied, the department eyed getting out of the flood zone. In the meantime, operations and equipment have been split between three locations.

Buelow said the new station is well out of the flood plain. Though both the old station had eight apparatus bays – the same number as the new central station – only three were drive-through. The new, 67,140 square foot central station will have seven drive-through bays.

More importantly, all of the department's specialty response vehicles will be operating out of a centralized location again.

“We want to be in the core of the city,” Buelow said, noting those apparatuses serve the entire city and are best served deploying from the middle of the city. “Our goal is to have that secondary equipment there to assist within eight minutes.”

By relocating the central station and building a new fire station 3 on the west side of the city, the fire department has also improved its coverage area and hopes an improvement in response times will follow.

Construction on the new centralized station should be complete on August 16 and air quality testing is expected to be finished on August 30, Buelow said. Firefighters will start moving in with the hopes of the Sept. 5, 7 a.m. shift being the first to operate out of the central station.

A public open house is scheduled for Oct. 8.

"The fire department believes, as bad as the flood was, this is an opportunity to build better and be more responsive to the community," Buelow said. "Hopefully, we're in a better position than we were prior to the flood."