The city of Aurora broke ground on Fire Station 13, which will be located near the Chicago Premium Outlets mall and the future Hollywood Casino location, at a ceremony on Wednesday.
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin said the groundbreaking “marks a significant milestone in our commitment to safety, security and well-being for our community.”
“This new fire station represents not just the expansion of our emergency services but a step towards building a safer, stronger future for all of us,” Irvin said.
Currently, Aurora has no fire stations north of Interstate 88, so the new station will greatly reduce response times to residents and new construction taking place in the area, such as at the Hollywood Casino resort, Aurora Fire Chief Dave McCabe told The Beacon-News after the ceremony. Fire officials have previously said that the new station will cut response time in the area in half.
The station will also help the Aurora Fire Department more quickly respond to accidents on I-88, McCabe said after the ceremony.
During the ceremony, McCabe said that a fire station north of I-88 has been talked about since he started at the department in 1997. Now, it is finally becoming a reality, but it has been a “huge undertaking” and a “total team effort” involving “countless meetings,” he said.
Once built, the new Fire Station 13 will be the city’s 10th operational fire station.
In addition to cutting fire department response times in the area, the station is notable because of its new features to make operations safer and more efficient, which Aurora Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Nickel outlined during the ceremony.
For example, the building will have a “dirty” side and a “clean” side to limit firefighters’ exposure to harmful toxins they are exposed to as a part of their job, Nickel said.
After responding to a fire, firefighters coming back to Station 13 will be able to shower and change into a clean uniform as quickly as possible before they reenter the part of the building that they live and work in, McCabe clarified after the ceremony.
The station will also feature specialized ventilation systems for both firefighters’ gear and vehicle exhaust, according to Nickel. McCabe said after the ceremony that the station will also have gear washers and dryers to minimize carcinogens that get on the gear during a fire.
Nickel said during the ceremony that the station will also allow fire trucks to pull through the building to park. Backing up is one of the greatest causes of accidents and one of the most dangerous things in the fire service, according to McCabe.
The station was designed with nearby residents in mind, Nickel said. Fire Station 13 is being constructed on a 2.5-acre site at the intersection of Bilter Road and Nan Street, which is across from residential homes.
Some of those residents previously expressed their concerns about living near a fire station, but city officials said it was an ideal location, according to past reporting.
Fire trucks leaving for an emergency would exit onto Bilter Road, and would only use Nan Street when returning to the station, officials previously said.
The station would also be 80 feet from Nan, with a lot of landscaping and a 6-foot-high solid wood fence, according to past reporting.
Since firefighters will live at the new fire station, spending about a third of their lives there, Fire Station 13 was also designed with this in mind, according to Nickel.
McCabe said after the ceremony that the station is being laid out in a way to minimize response times regardless of where a firefighter is in the building, be that the kitchen, the workout room or their bed.
Training elements are also expected to be built into the structure itself, Nickel said during the ceremony.
The station is expected to serve the community for the next 50 to 75 years, he said.
Land that will hold the future Fire Station 13 has been owned by the city since 2015.
The construction of the 20,000-square-foot Fire Station 13 is expected to cost around $12.8 million, with a 5% contingency. That amount was approved by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday.
The new fire station is set to be fully constructed by the end of 2025 or very early 2026, McCabe said.
Construction management is being handled by Leopardo Construction, of Hoffman Estates, according to past reporting.
The same company is also managing a second construction project, the moving of Fire Station 9 from its current site at 2339 Diehl Road to a new location on Eola Road, which city officials said is set to also break ground in a couple of weeks.
Fire Station 9 would be on about a 2.5-acre site at 7S300 Eola Road, just south of Liberty Street, officials have said.
Aurora fire officials previously said that the goal in moving and constructing new stations is to get response times below six minutes for regular fire responses and four minutes for emergency medical responses.
The city is also looking to move the Aurora Fire Department’s headquarters from its aging location downtown to the campus of the current Aurora Police Department headquarters, creating a joint public safety campus.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
