Special delivery

HAYDEN — Unlike most fire stations, the new build for Northern Lakes Fire Station 3 is as much a special delivery as it is a construction project. 

The 7,000-square-foot facility on Pope Road in Garwood is comprised of five modules, assembled into a brand-new station in a matter of weeks. 

Northern Lakes Public information officer Chris Larson said that EXTREME Modular Buildings, a Lethbridge, Canada, transports the pieces overnight due to their large size.

“It’ll be about a month of them connecting and adjusting the station to assemble it altogether,” Larson said.

Assistant Chief Matt Dill said the building’s $3.65 million price tag was comparable to traditional construction costs, but saved the fire district in time to assemble versus build. The new station was financed by First Interstate Bank based on capital improvement plan projections and will be paid off through impact fees.

Dill was able to go up and view the factory in October to see how pieces were fabricated and said the experience was fascinating. 

“It was an interesting thing, doing the walkthrough at the factory and talking to the people who were making it. It reminded me of one of those ‘Modern Marvels’ shows on the History Channel walking through all the big machinery,” Dill said.

Since it decided on the prefabricated station, Northern Lakes Fire has fielded calls from across the country from chiefs interested in the concept. 

During the 2023 visit to Canada, Dill said that fabrication for similar stations was underway, intended for fire departments in Oregon and Florida, so the design concept is spreading.

The original Northern Lakes Fire Station 3 came about as a matter of convenience, but Dill said the functionality of the building was not sustainable.

“It was a shop that we were using basically as a reserve station. That building went up in the early '90s and that was more or less a storage building. We added a bathroom, a kitchenette and a small area to seat about 25 people for training purposes, but it was never intended to be a 24/7 station,” Dill said. 

The station parcel is located next to construction for the $9.3 million Lakes Highway District Garwood Operations Facility.

In June 2023, Northern Lakes opened a temporary station at the Coeur d'Alene Airport to help cover 108 square miles of their jurisdiction. The new station will provide greater coverage for the northern portion of Northern Lakes Fire.

“We’ve had a great working relationship with the airport and we’re appreciative to the airport board and board of county commissioners to let us come in and operate. We don’t quite know what the future holds past that, when we move into our station up in Garwood, but we’ve developed a really good relationship and would like to foster that further,” Dill said.

Northern Lakes' jurisdiction includes emergency coverage in the Hayden, Rathdrum, Twin Lakes and Garwood areas.

Two more of the modules are needed before the building size and shape will finally start to take shape.

“In the length of time that that took, we would just now be starting if we did a traditional construction,” Dill said.

A study done three years ago marked Garwood as the ideal bull's-eye to balance coverage throughout the area.

The new facility will have five bedrooms and at least a three-firefighter fire engine, although that may change if the analysis of emergency call volume changes.

“We have so many calls occurring simultaneously in our jurisdiction now, and having the third station has really helped us serve all of them, with Northern Lakes personnel, and rely less heavily on surrounding agencies to come in and assist us,” Dill said.

    A rendering of the design for the new Northern Lakes Fire District station at Pope Road and Garwood in Hayden.