Sep. 21—Midland City Council asked for more information in a workshop meeting Monday afternoon as it considers whether to move one of the city's three fire stations and build a fourth one, or to move one of the stations but keep the total amount of fire stations at three.

The information requested by the governing body includes comparisons to fire response times in peer communities and a financial analysis for building and staffing potential new fire stations.

The discussion stems from a 2024 fire study that made 65 recommendations to the city for its fire department. Only about 33% of Midland is within a four-minute response time range of a fire station — the National Fire Protection Association's recommended response time for fire departments — and the new station or stations would bring more of the city closer to a fire station.

Regardless of whether the city decides to aim for a future with a total of three or four fire stations, Fire Chief Josh Mosher recommended moving one of the city's existing fire stations — meaning a new station would be constructed and an existing station closed. But where the station would move would depend on whether the city decides to build a fourth station.

"We're not asking for financial investment right now," said City Manager Brad Kaye. "But looking at the planning of the stations, if we chose a three-station model, we would locate the stations in certain locations based on the criteria that we're going to have. If we choose four, they might be different."

Why new stations are recommended

The most recent new geographic location for a fire station was 1717 N. Saginaw Road for Station 3, built in 1976. At that time, the city's land mass was smaller and the northeast area of the city wasn't as fully developed as it is now.

Many new housing developments, especially in the north and northeast corridors, are in the parts of the city farthest from any fire station.

"We're functionally operating on lines that were drawn 50 years ago," Mosher told City Council. "Population has grown in that 50 years, and our physical footprint and households have also grown dramatically in those 50 years."

The National Fire Protection Association recommends that fire departments be able to respond to emergency calls within four minutes 90% of the time. This recommendation stems from the facts that in medical emergencies, risk of brain damage and death goes up considerably after 4-6 minutes for people experiencing oxygen deprivation or cardiac arrest, and that modern homes can reach flashover — when an entire room ignites at once — within three to five minutes of open flame growth.

In older homes made with more natural rather than synthetic materials, it took about 17 minutes before flashover occurred. But with newer home construction come more safety concerns for firefighters, Mosher said.

"The old homes, you had 15, 17 minutes (before) flashover, but they're built completely different," said Mosher. "We have floor collapse a lot quicker now. (Firefighters) are getting there in that four- to five-minute range. Now we've got to worry about: Is that floor still going to be there? Are we going to lose our floor joints? Are we going to lose our roof joints?"

Where the stations would go

Mosher walked Council through several potential locations for new fire stations. Even with four stations, significant chunks of the city wouldn't be reachable in four minutes, so Mosher focused his recommendations on getting as much of the city as possible within a five-minute response time of the nearest fire station.

Deputy Chief Jeff Tomovcsik said the department also considered potential future growth for the city.

"We're building fire stations for 50 to 70 years down the road, so we wanted to anticipate additional city growth in population," said Tomovcsik.

If the city opts to move one fire station but remain at three fire stations total, Mosher recommends building a new fire station and headquarters at 1508 E. Wheeler, at Plymouth Park, replacing Fire Station 1 and the administrative offices at 816 E. Haley Street.

If the city opts to build a fourth station, Mosher recommends building a new station at 315 Joe Mann Blvd, near NCG Cinema, and moving Station 1 and the headquarters to the corner of Eastlawn and Waldo.

In both of the above scenarios, Station 3 at 1717 N. Saginaw Rd and Station 2 at 313 Townsend would remain.

Mosher also showed Council a couple options for building a fourth station without moving any of the existing ones, but he didn't recommend that course of action.

"Coverage-wise, it's going to be really hard to keep the three and just add a fourth," he said. "You're going to have quite a bit of area of the city not really covered."

Cost and timeframe

Constructing a new fire headquarters would cost the city roughly $15 million, Mosher loosely estimated. A smaller non-headquarters fire station would cost about $6 million to $7 million to construct.

Staffing a new station would increase the city's budget by about $3 million a year, Mosher estimated.

In total, building a new station would take around three years from getting Council's approval to the station's opening, Mosher estimated.

Council did not vote on any resolutions at Monday's meeting.

Council's next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 28 in City Hall.

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