Four minutes.
That could mean the difference between life and death.
When Kennewick city officials were considering spending $4.7 million to build and equip a fifth fire station, they talked a lot about getting more quickly to fires and medical emergencies.
The last fire station in Kennewick was built 20 years ago. And since then, they said, the city’s growth had outpaced fire department resources.
The department’s goal is to respond to emergency medical calls in four minutes and fires in five minutes. But until Monday, travel time to many parts of southwest Kennewick was closer to eight.
That changed with the opening of Fire Station 5 at South Kellogg Street and West 10th Avenue.
“It’s been a long time planning,” Neil Hines, operations chief for the Kennewick Fire Department, told the crowd of about 275. “It’s very difficult to put a fire station into an existing neighborhood.”
The city says the $3.775 million station also will provide backup for other fire stations those crews are out on calls.
“We’re trying to build a station we can carry into the future,” Hines said.