City revises equipment plans for new Sun City Summerlin fire station

It's still a fire station. It still has the same makeup of crews. The only decision still up in the air is the equipment that will fill its bays.

If plans stay the same, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Station No. 107, which is being built within Sun City Summerlin at the northeast corner of Del Webb Boulevard and Sundial Drive, will not have two trucks as was announced in February 2009. Instead, it will have one.

The city is considering utilizing a "quint" -- an all-purpose vehicle.

"It's a ladder truck, a fire engine and a medical vehicle, all rolled into one," said Tim Szymanski, public information officer for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.

He further described it this way: Usually fire apparatus have specific tasks, such as engines pump water and ladder trucks have tall ladders to get to high places. A quintuple combination pumper, or quint, is a fire service apparatus that serves the dual purpose of an engine and a ladder truck. The name quint is derived from the Latin prefix quinque, meaning five, and refers to the five functions that a quint provides -- pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device and ground ladders.

However, rescue trucks can transport patients, while quints cannot.

Sun City Summerlin resident Ivan Frankuchen said he had not heard of the possibility of outfitting the station with only one truck.

"That's absolutely terrible ... there should be more (vehicles), not less," he said.

Frankuchen said even though the fire station still will have three emergency medical technicians and one paramedic during each shift, he was "still very much concerned."

Ward 4 Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony said that with three fire stations opening in the next year, equipping them this way was thought to be more prudent.

He said there would be no medical safety issues and that the equipment and supplies carried on the quint would be the same as on a rescue truck.

"I'm 100 percent confident that the residents of Sun City will have first-class medical attention," Anthony said.

The 7,800-square-foot fire station is slated to open at the end of May or the first week of June 2012.

The station is estimated to cost $6.3 million, with $4.6 million for the building, fixtures, furniture and office equipment, $1.1 million for the quint and a contingency parachute of about $700,000.

Szymanski said the fire chief may re-evaluate the situation before making a final decision, as discussions have arisen about the lack of maneuverability and slower travel speed of a quint. A fire engine, which has a four-man team, may be substituted instead, he said, but a rescue unit was definitely out, due to cost and manpower.

"Things can change," Szymanski said. "There'll probably be no final determination until (just before it opens)."

The fire department reports that five years ago, it answered an estimated six calls to Sun City Summerlin daily, with 90 percent of them being medical, not fire-related. Szymanski said those numbers changed in the past few years for reasons unknown, and today's numbers are 4.2 calls per day to the
retirement community.

David Steinman, vice president of the Sun City Summerlin Community Association Board of Directors, said a rumor mill had gone into action when plans for the rescue unit were scrapped but that there was nothing about which to be concerned.

"People are trying to say, 'There'll be no EMTs and no paramedics.' That's ridiculous," he said. "Why would you put a unit (fire stations) in that area without out a least an EMT on it?"

He said when a medical unit is tied up at a hospital and a multi-car pileup on the highway occurs, fire engines are sent.

"So we made all our units medical units," Steinman said, adding that all firemen are certified EMTs.

Szymanski agreed that crews on various fire vehicles could render the same medical attention as a rescue unit, the only difference being the type of truck used to respond.

"I tell people a million times, 'If you get hit by a bus, you don't care what the vehicle looks like that comes to the rescue,' " Szymanski said. "You just want someone to stop the bleeding and save your life.' "

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.