Richfield Fire Station No. 2 Cleared For Remodel

The city's will soon undergo a major face-lift after the Richfield City Council approved the project Tuesday night.

The $900,000 project will completely revamp as it's called, without knocking the building to the ground.

Among the planned improvements is creating separate spaces for both men and women firefighters. The current station has just one locker room, which creates some problems when trying to accommodate its three female firefighters.

In addition, more storage will be added, fitness equipment will be replaced and new windows, lights, doors and boiler system will be added for more energy efficiency.

Many may question why Richfield even has a need for a second fire station. According to Fire Chief Wayne Kewitsch, the answer is simple: geography and time.

Richfield's general make-up only provides three easy routes to get from one side of the city to the other: 66th Street, 76th/77th Street and Interstate 494. And time is always of the essence.

Kewitsch said Fire Station No. 1, which is located at , serves everything east of Lyndale Avenue, while Fire Station No. 2 serves everything west. The center of the city is 70th Street and Logan Avenue. Kewitsch said drive time to that point from Fire Station No. 2 was 1 minute and 45 seconds, whereas the drive from Fire Station No. 1 was 3 minutes and 45 seconds; a major difference.

"That two minutes doesn’t seem like a lot," he said. "But if you’re house is on fire or if you’re having a cardiac arrest, that's an eternity."

Response times for a house fire is particularly important in today's world, Kewitsch said. Today, materials used to furnish and decorate homes contain more plastic, rather than natural fibers found the old days.

Kewitsch showed a video of two model rooms, one with modern and one with furnishings from 1950, catching fire. The modern room took just 3 minutes and 40 seconds to be consumed; the legacy room as it was called, took roughly 30 minutes.

"Time is key," he said. "And that's really why we have station two."

According to the council agenda, the renovation is expected to begin this fall. The station will remain open to serve the community during construction.

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