MISHAWAKA — Construction of the $15 million Mishawaka Fire Station No. 2 on East McKinley Avenue is on schedule for a fall opening in what city officials are calling the largest expenditure for the fire department in the city's history.
Construction crews are working on the 25,000-square-foot building that will be a serious upgrade to the current No. 2 station, a 60-year-old brick building that sits on North Main Street a few blocks away.
Five bays to house equipment in the new fire station will have state-of-the-art barriers to separate the equipment from the living quarters of the firefighters. At the station's groundbreaking in August 2023, Fire Chief Bryon Woodward called the department "… an all-hazards department, really. For us, it's fire, EMS, swift-water rescue, dive rescue, ducks fell down the sewer."
Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood said at his State of the City address that the fire department's needs were paramount for public safety. "We are committed to enhancing public safety infrastructure and, as a result, our biggest project, the Mishawaka Fire Station No. Two, is quickly taking shape and is set to open at the end of this year," Wood said.
In addition to housing the firefighters in updated quarters, the station also will have the latest in decontamination areas and washers-dryers in the station to limit the firefighters' families' exposure to dirty equipment. Other safety measures include equipping firefighters with two sets of gear so they can exchange it when they expose themselves in dirty and messy incidents.
Wood also touted the new station that will serve as the site for the Survive Alive House that educates children on safety measures for house fires.
The city received three new pumper trucks, Wood said. Having new fire trucks would give firefighters updated means to fight fires.
The building also is expected to have a community room that will be available for public events.
The new No. 2 station also will be the permanent spot for the city's fourth ambulance and its crew that was put into service earlier this year.
Medical events lead 2023 statistics
The new station comes at a time when 2023 calls for service in Mishawaka were 10,421, a 2½% decrease from the year before. Wood said of the 2023 calls, 7,903 calls were for medical events, while the city firefighters were dispatched to 107 fire calls for the past year.
Staffing also has been consistent. Wood said that although the fire department currently has seven openings, there were seven recruits in training that would bolster the firefighting force.
At the groundbreaking, Woodward had said Station No. 2 was seeing a jump in daily calls because crews were serving as backups to both the north and south units. In 2021, the Station No. 2 fire and EMS service teams were going on 13 runs per day, but that number rose to an average of 19 runs per day last summer.
Current city fire stations
Fire Station No. 1: 600 Union St.; built in 1993
Fire Station No. 2: 2332 N. Main St.; built in 1963
Fire Station No. 3: 333 E. Douglas Road; built in 1991
Fire Station No. 4: 3000 Harrison Road; built in 2014
Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com.
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