The City Council celebrated the opening of the new Fire Station 24 with a ceremonial ribbon cutting on Dec. 16, 2021.

The new fire station, located on Northeast 132nd Street, just North of Juanita Elementary School, is the culmination of an effort to improve emergency response that began before Finn Hill and North Juanita became a part of Kirkland and that persevered through annexation, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new fire station helps emergency responders reach Finn Hill and Juanita community members in need. Firefighter and EMTs will begin responding out of the fire station on Jan. 5, 2022.

“The station is designed to protect the health of those who are responding and to empower them to be even more efficient than they already are,” said Councilmember Toby Nixon in prepared remarks. “It provides quick access to the apparatus bay from every location within the station. Responding to the lessons learned with the COVID-19 early pandemic response, it provides a decontamination room with exterior access. And it’s designed to be operational even after a significant earthquake, so our firefighters can get out of the station and respond when the community needs them most.”

Among other design elements, Fire Station 24 features a decontamination bay, an extractor that sucks contaminants out of their gear, and a sealed locker room. Airlocks prevent engine bay fumes from entering the fire station’s work and living spaces. All of these features became fundamental to modern fire station’s designs more than a decade ago when research showed that cancer had eclipsed fires as emergency responders’ most prolific killer.

Completing construction of Fire Station 24 is one of the City’s 2021-2022 Work Program items and is one of several significant investments the City is making in its fire stations.

Early in 2022, the City will demolish a Totem Lake medical building just off Northeast 132nd Street near Hazen Hills Park and then will begin building a new Fire Station 27 in its place. In the spring, the City will renovate Fire Station 22, as well. And later, it will renovate Forbes Creek’s Fire Station 21 and North Rose Hill’s Fire Station 26. The City renovated Fire Station 25, off Juanita Drive, in 2018.