Multimillion-Dollar Alexandria Fire Station Opens Without Firefighters

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A brand new $15 million fire station is apparently going unused in the City’s West End because the City of Alexandria didn’t foresee some firefighter retirements and didn’t fund firefighters to work there, according to an online petition started by concerned citizens.

Instead, a fire engine purchased for the station, along with its personnel, are being used at Station 209, at Potomac Yard.

“This is like opening a library without any books in it,” Councilwoman Del Pepper recently told Connection newspapers. “We do not want this to be a symbol that West End services don’t matter.”

The City was supposed to have held a ribbon-cutting for the new Station 210 on April 6, but if it did, no photos or news releases have been shared by the City and its City fire station page still shows renderings of the station, no photos.

The online petition from residents in the West End shows deep concerns over Station 210, a brand new fire station that has been built but is going unstaffed without firefighters.

“Fund the Operation of Station 210,” is an online petition that was started due to concerns over response times to fires and also the proximity of a rail yard in the neighborhood, where an Ethanol Transloading Facility, established by Norfolk Southern, is located adjacent to residential neighborhoods and Samuel Tucker Elementary School.

As of Tuesday morning, the petition had 268 signatures.

The petition basically says that the neighborhood residents want the city to pay for the operational costs of Station 210, at 5200 Eisenhower Ave.

The petition notes that although a fire engine was purchased for the station, it’s being used at Station 209 (Potomac Yard). Personnel to operate the fire engine are also located there, according to the petition.

”Construction of Station 210 is finally complete. Yet the proposed FY 2016 budget again provides no funds to man the station with fire fighters, fire equipment or the foam unit which will remain seven miles away from the one place in the City that it was specifically acquired to protect,” the petition states.

Here’s more from the petition:

“It is time for the Alexandria City Council to (a) allocate all necessary funds needed to operate our $15 million investment in Station 210, (b) provide the life safety protections that the City says all its residents are entitled to and (c) address what for many years have been recognized as unacceptable response times in the West End.

In light of the foregoing, the undersigned formally request that the Alexandria City Council ensure adequate funds to fully operate Fire Station 210, as designed, are provided in the City’s FY 2016 Operating Budget.”