Resident concerned about fire station’s 2.8-mile move

For 40 years, residents living on the edge of Frenchman Mountain relied on Clark County Fire Station 16 when there was trouble.

Fires have been doused, people have been extricated from tricky situations and hundreds of lives have been saved by emergency medical treatment. With the construction of a new Station 16 at 6131 E. Washington Ave., response time is expected to increase, and the area is set to lose a rescue truck. The current Station 16 is at 150 N. Nellis Blvd., and the new site is 2.8 miles away. The switch is set to go live in mid- to late July.

The former Station 16 was at 150 N. Nellis Blvd.

“I’m a big supporter of the fire department, but I had to speak out about this,” Sunrise Manor resident Fred Hutt said. “We’ve got an aging population up here, and more and more, we’re going to need emergency services, and those added minutes in response time are going to be critical.”

County Fire Chief Greg Cassell said the situation is not ideal, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds. Rescue and fire trucks handle many of the same calls and are staffed by the same personnel, he said.

When many of the homes on the edge of Frenchman Mountain were built, they were a long way from the rest of the homes in the valley. The elevated land and the relatively rural nature of the area led to the creation of a unique community of people who enjoyed the ability to work and play in the middle of the valley but could live and relax in their own way and build their private Shangri-Las on larger lots than the ones many flatlanders had.

Over the years, the community has stretched out and occupied the land between the former edge of the suburban sprawl and Frenchman Mountain, with newer, tract homes. The demographics and population shifted, and Cassell said these changes necessitated the change in services to the area.

“When you look at the computer modeling, the new station will be very slow,” Cassell said. “It’s going to run six or seven calls a day. Given how busy we are in so many other pockets in the valley, to have a station with three apparatus staffed with 10 people covering very few calls didn’t make sense. We had to do something to spread the workload.”

Hutt said he has seen the numbers and he disagrees.

“The other closest stations are Station 27 (4695 Vegas Valley Drive) and Station 20 (5865 Judson Ave.),” Hutt said. “Station 27 has two rescue trucks. In March, one handled 380 calls, and the other handled 370 calls. Station 20’s rescue truck handled 222 calls. Station 16 handled almost 500, and those calls are going to have to be distributed to those stations, and they’re already at or over capacity.

Hutt began his interaction with the fire department not long after moving to the area from New York. Station 16 responded to a small emergency that could have gotten worse. Hutt didn’t want to go into the details of the event, but the professionalism, skills and friendliness of the staff impressed him, he said. The next week, his wife baked cookies, and they brought them to the station. Over the years, the Hutts’ relationship with the firefighters of Station 16 blossomed.

“We used to have all-day barbecues out here,” Hutt said. “The firefighters would come over in shifts.”

Cassell, who has been the department’s chief for four months, said he appreciates Hutt and all he has done over the years but feels his hands are tied by finances.

“We are incredibly short on resources and personnel,” Cassell said. “I’m picking up the pieces of things that have been falling apart for years because of the downturn in the economy, like all the departments in the county are. We have 650 authorized positions, but only a little over 600 are filled. We hope to fill a little over 40 this summer, but that will still leave us short of what we need. With the size of the county and the population, we really should have closer to 700.”

For Hutt, it’s a matter of the needs of the old, established homes being overtaken by the needs of the newer arrivals. He said many of the residents on the hill have been there 30 years or more and tend to be at the age where a simple fall can lead to debilitating complications.

Cassell hopes the situation is temporary and that a new station will open eventually at the old Station 16 location to provide services and a quicker response time. Any fire station built there won’t be Station 16. That number is in use at the new location.

“The old one is being torn down,” Cassell said. “It needs to be rebuilt. We still have the property, and it’s a great location for a fire station. It’s one of my top priorities, and I’ve got some aggressive plans.”

To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.