A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site of the future Goshen Fire Station 7 on June 16.
A crowd consisting mainly of firefighters, local officials, and sheriff’s deputies attended the event, which was held on what is currently a dirt lot at the corner of Betty Street and Robinson Road in Goshen.
The new Tulare County Fire Department station will be built by Forcum/Mackey Construction, Inc. at a cost of $7,025,000. The 7,396-square-foot facility will include an office, three apparatus bays, an exercise room, a living/kitchen/dining area, two sleeping areas, a lobby and reception area, a public restroom, a turnout room, a cleanup room, two staff restrooms with showers and a laundry room.
The station will replace the current Goshen station, which was built in 1956, according to Tulare County Fire Chief Charlie Norman.
“It is very antiquated,” he said. “It would be cost-prohibitive for us to stay there.”
He added that the “circulation element” at the current station makes it a challenge to get fire department equipment on the road.
“It has really outlived its service life,” Norman said. “All of our apparatus are getting larger, and the stations are staying the same size.”
Norman explained how the new fire station will differ from the current “antiquated” one.
“It means being able to have efficiencies: appliances that shut off automatically when the alarm goes off, having a room for apparatus where my firefighters can get in and out safely, and having exhaust systems so they don't have the carcinogens from the apparatus that are fired up going into the station, going into their equipment, and going into their lungs,” he said.
Firefighters at the Goshen station are the primary responders for an area of about 80-square miles, extending from Goshen to surrounding rural areas. They are a secondary crew for an area of about 250-square miles, which includes Ivanhoe, Cutler-Orosi, Kings River, Visalia and Tulare.
The brief ceremony included a flag salute, and introductions of Tulare County Supervisors Pete Vander Poel, Larry Micari, Amy Shuklian and Eddie Valero, County Administrative Officer Jason Britt, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office representatives and other officials.
“In Tulare County, we're required to do all things,” Norman said. “We’re an all-risk, all hazard fire department because we have to be, and we offer all these many services. It's not just fires, it's medical calls, it's swift water rescue.
“There's so much that we do, and in addition to these large fires, we still run 16,200 calls per year,” he said. “It’s very important that we always put our best foot forward. Planning and preparedness are the keys. That's what we do. That's why we're ready. That's why we're not on our heels when we have these large incidents throughout the summertime, and having the support of our board and our CAO is so paramount to make us to where we need to be.”
Norman noted how the location of the new fire station will help that effort.
“We've got east-west access through to the west, Goshen to east of Visalia and north parts of the county, and then 99 north and south, as well as the 198 corridor,” he said.
Vander Poel focused his remarks on how the county invests in its facilities and communities.
“If you look at what our facility investment has been over the last few years, we've been spending anywhere from $90 to $100 million for probably the last five years on different county facilities,” he said. “I am very proud to be a part of this board that is doing great things throughout this county.
“We borrowed money as a county several years ago when interest rates were very low,” he said. “We borrowed a significant amount of money to upgrade our fire fleet, and now we look behind us and we see these beautiful fire trucks, and today they're double and triple the cost. We borrowed money then, paid low interest rates, and now they're even more expensive, so we're getting the best bang for our buck. I'm very proud of what this county has accomplished.”
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