Tulsa Fire Department station realignment

Tulsa's shifting population has created new locations where the city needs firefighters and even fire stations. <br/><br/>In fact, what was the Tulsa Fire Department's station #1 now just office

Tuesday, November 8th 2005, 11:13 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa's shifting population has created new locations where the city needs firefighters and even fire stations.

In fact, what was the Tulsa Fire Department's station #1 now just office space because of the changing needs of the city and the changing demands on the department.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says it was a shift in the job description that led the Tulsa Fire Department to move trucks away from station #1 downtown. The trucks went elsewhere, partly because the department now responds to more medical calls than fires.

Tulsa Fire Captain Larry Bowles: "If we were just talking about fires, that would be one thing, but now medical runs make up about 60 to 70 percent of the runs we make." And as the scope of what the fire department does has expanded, the need for stations in certain places has changed.

Right now, the fire department has 29 active stations scattered over Tulsa so fire trucks can reach any point in about 4 minutes. Because of changing needs and shifting population - 2 new stations are planned - one at Apache and Harvard, the other at 111th and Yale.

When the department's needs change, it moves firefighters and fire trucks and occasionally it abandons an old station and builds a new one. The newest station in Tulsa, station #7 at 3005 East 15th Street, was a replacement for an outdated one.

New stations are much larger because the trucks are bigger. â€œThey're wider, they're longer, they're taller and we have some new trucks that just won't fit in some of the stations built 40 to 60 years ago.â€ In some cases, the department has expanded fire station doors so the new trucks can fit. In other cases, the building can't easily be modified and the department stays put - as it has in the city's oldest station, fire station #5 at 102 East 18th Street.

With aging buildings and a shifting population, it's another response from the department that Tulsa counts on to be anywhere it's needed.