EDWARDSVILLE – The new SIUE Fire Station will open next week, Edwardsville Fire Chief Rick Welle said this week.
Welle said this is a monumental move for the city opening the third fire facility in Edwardsville.
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“We have had two fire stations since the 1960s,” Welle said. “This will be on the north side of the SIUE campus and get us quick access to the campus and the new warehouse district. We had to increase staffing in the process.”
Welle said there will be a minimum of two and as many as four firefighters at the new SIUE fire facility day in day out.
“We are planning on starting operation there by the end of next week,” he said. “The new satellite station is a very nice facility the city has built for us. We are really looking forward to cutting down our response time to the west corridor and providing us a safe and efficient building to locate.”
The new fire facility will be approximately 8,400 square feet. The location is at 783 Northwest Drive, Edwardsville.
“It is actually right on campus,” he said. “We have a long-term lease with the university. This certainly puts us in good position to the campus and we can easily run east to west in or out of the city.”
Welle said an actual ribbon cutting for the new fire facility is still a ways away. Some finishing touches to the building still have to be done before the grand opening.
He said he didn’t know if the grand opening event would happen before or after the Thanksgiving holiday, but definitely should happen before Christmas.
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