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Firefighter-less fire station finally lands a crew

December 5, 2015 at 4:48 p.m. EST

Alexandria’s newest fire station, which opened this spring with a paramedic team but no firefighters, finally got a fire engine and crew Saturday to cover the booming southwest area of the city.

Fire Chief Robert Dubé confirmed Friday that three firefighters and an officer are joining an EMS supervisor at the 45,000-square-foot facility on Eisenhower Avenue, near the Van Dorn Metro station.

“We’ll have a mix of veteran and new staff,” Dubé said. “We were able to hire people who are EMTs or medics and they’ve gone through firefighter training.”

The medical transport unit that had been based at the fire station is being moved to the Cameron Mills Road station in Beverly Hills, “after an analysis of call data and response times,” City Manager Mark Jinks said in an email to the City Council.

When Fire Station 210 opened in April, residents questioned how the city could invest $15 million in its construction but not have a full fire crew in place. More than 360 people signed an online petition calling for the necessary funds to staff and equip the station.

$15 million fire station opens without any firefighters

Last year, then-City Manager Rashad Young advised the city to reject a federal grant covering two years in salaries and benefits for new firefighters, because the city would be on the hook for the funding after the grant expired.

“Given where we were at that time, I think it was a prudent decision,” said council member Justin Wilson (D). “There was an assumption that we’d shift resources later.”

In city budget discussions in spring 2014, Young proposed moving the fire engine and crew from the Old Town station on Powhatan Street to the new station. Old Town residents protested, and the council opted to keep the engine and crew in place while finding a way to pay for a crew at the new station later.

More firefighters than expected retired last year, and instead of simply replacing them, Dubé proposed that the city hire and cross-train firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians to make its workforce more flexible and responsive to the community. Most of the calls for help in Alexandria, as in the rest of the country, are for medical emergencies, not fires.

The council agreed, but that decision slowed hiring. Some paramedics also objected, but Dubé and Jinks pledged not to force current employees to cross-train.

The issue became a point of contention in this year's mayoral and council races, and the council voted in June to provide the fire department with $1.3 million to hire 20 employees.

Dubé said he has been able to hire enough dual-certified firefighters and medics to staff the Eisenhower Avenue firehouse after city officials devised a process that would move recruits more quickly through the hiring and training process.

He is also sending the city’s foam truck, which is used to battle ethanol-based fires, from the Potomac Yards station to Eisenhower Avenue. Station 210 is the city’s closest to the Norfolk Southern rail yard, which has a rail-to-truck transfer ethanol point.