North Las Vegas, amid growth spurt, breaks ground on new fire station

North Las Vegas Fire Chief Joseph Calhoun was counting down the days before a major master-planned community in the city would get a new fire station.

On Tuesday morning, he got to break ground with city officials on the next fire station.

The city of North Las Vegas saw some of the largest population growth in the nation during the pandemic and is planning to further expand with additional master-planned communities, like The Village at Tule Springs.

Next summer, the city will open its ninth fire station after a private and public agreement with The Village at Tule Springs and the City of North Las Vegas.

Developers agreed they would build the new fire station and donate two fire engines, while the city would hire about 30 new employees to serve an estimated 30,000 new residents, Calhoun said

“This station is definitely needed for not only the growth that is happening on the north side with Tule Springs, but a lot of the other growth that’s been happening in that corridor in the north side of the city,” Calhoun said.

Fire Station 58 will be located near South Fifth Street and East Deer Springs Way, in Councilman Richard Cherchio’s Ward 4.

“It’s unbelievable that we’re going to have a fire station and it’s going to resemble and be a part of the community,” Cherchio said. “That’s really the philosophy of North Las Vegas, to be a part of the community.”

Call volume up

North Las Vegas currently gets by with eight fire stations that cover the city with fire suppression and medical services, but has recently fallen below their own targeted response times for medical calls.

According to Calhoun, 80 percent of their calls are for medical services.

“We’ve seen definitely over the last year to year-and-a-half our call volume up in the north side of the city grew pretty drastically,” he said.

To improve response times, the city has resorted to contracting private ambulance services with American Medical Response, Calhoun said. The ambulances are strategically placed in parking lots and street corners to reduce their medical response times in the north side of the city.

“We were falling below where we wanted to be. Now with having those ambulances over there we’re able to make those EMS calls,” he said.

According to a map with response times of all the fire stations in North Las Vegas, Fire Station 58 will be built in a section in the north side of the city that has slower response times. Once the station opens, the city would no longer need to contract with AMR for their medical services.

“This is a prime area that is in need of that fire station,” Calhoun said. “Especially with the growth that’s going to continue to happen in Tule Springs over the next two to three years on the north side.”

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0350. Follow @jimi_writes on Twitter.