Atascocita Fire Department leaders celebrated the reopening of Station 29 on Feb. 15, following a $6.9 million rebuild of the facility that Chief of Department Mike Mulligan said was needed to address health and safety issues at the station. The improvements included the addition of a new storage area that helps remove carcinogenic contaminants from fire suits and gear, 13 dorms, a weight room, a community room and upgraded living quarters.
Meanwhile, Humble Fire Department officials opened a $6.1 million replacement of Station 2 in January. The 12,000-square-foot facility expanded capacity of the original two-person station to house five to six firefighters and/or medics, one ambulance, one fire truck and two reserve vehicles, Chief David Langenberg said.
In December, Houston Fire Department officials completed a roughly $445,000 renovation of Station 101 in Kingwood. Communications Director Brent Taylor said the improvements have provided safer living conditions for employees.
Assessing the need
Multiple fire department facilities popping up in an area during a short period of time is not unusual for areas with fast-growing populations, said John Riddle, president of the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters, an advocacy group that serves 19,000 firefighters in 200 communities across the state.
The Lake Houston area’s population grew by roughly 9.2% over five years, rising from more than 282,400 residents in 2018 to nearly 308,500 in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“New facilities and proper training enable firefighters to deliver excellent service and be good stewards of community resources,” Riddle said.
Humble Fire Department’s replacement station is located farther south than the original station to accommodate population growth in the southern part of the city, Langenberg said.
Two out of the three station projects experienced delays from conception to opening, department leaders said.
Humble’s new station was funded in part by a $4.5 million federal grant, and the city provided about $1.5 million-$2 million, Langenberg said.
Typically, a fire station takes 12-18 months to build, but the Humble project encountered several setbacks, including supply chain issues from the coronavirus pandemic, Langenberg said. Ultimately, the slowdowns raised the cost of the fire house from the 2018 estimate, which was closer to $4.5 million.
“By the time we received the funding approval and got the building designed, both COVID and the subsequent era of hyperinflation happened,” Humble City Manager Jason Stuebe said via a Feb. 27 email.
While Mulligan said the AFD was able to secure a locked-in price for the roughly $6.9 million rebuild of Station 29, he noted the project suffered from several delays due to supply chain issues.
Houston Fire Department leaders said their project did not see cost changes or timeline delays.
Offering input
- “Well-run communities are constantly monitoring growth and fire/EMS coverage and extending coverage with new fire stations and more personnel," Riddle said.
- “The importance of the project and the benefit it now provides far exceed the additional local dollars that [were] required," Stuebe said.
While Humble Fire Department officials are not looking to build additional facilities anytime soon, Langenberg said the department has capacity to add two more staff positions and additional apparatuses to the new station, if needed.
In February, Houston City Council members voted to initiate the process of acquiring 4.5 acres of land in Kingwood for a planned project that would consolidate stations 101 and 104 into a single, four-bay fire station.
City officials said neither of the current stations met the fire department’s standards, noting issues with Station 101’s roof and Station 104’s proximity to the San Jacinto River, planning documents show. Taylor said it was still too early in the planning process to establish a timeline for when the project would move forward.
“This is the first on-paper step in a very long path,” Taylor said.
In Atascocita, Mulligan said the department is in the planning phase for a new training facility consisting of modular units that could be rearranged to suit particular training needs.
“If we wanted to change the configuration, it can be done simply,” Mulligan said. “It allows for a lot more flexibility.”
Additionally, Mulligan said he hopes to move forward on planned renovations to AFD Station 39 and upgrades at the department’s administrative building within the next three years.
Mulligan said the planned renovations to Station 39 wouldn’t be as extensive as the work recently completed on Station 29, noting the department is looking into reworking the station’s floor plan to better utilize the second floor of the facility.
Mulligan noted exact timelines and cost estimates have not yet been determined.
