Captiva Fire District breaks ground on new station
Officials dug out the first heaps of soil for the new Captiva Island Fire Station during a ground breaking ceremony on April 10.
The new station, expected to be completed within nine months, replaces the outdated facility constructed in 1980 and serves as a disaster hub for the island by withstanding 170 mile per hour winds.
Besides more than doubling the amount of square footage from 3,000 to 6,000, the new station adds a third bay for vehicles, an administrative wing with three offices and training rooms, and eight bedrooms upstairs for on-call personnel.
When the first station was built in 1980, fire officials had to apply for a variance from Lee County to build in a residential zone, but this time they completely rezoned the property to a Community Facilities Planned Development (CFPD) designation.
“It was two lots and we switched it to one and rezoned to CFPD,” said Fire Chief Rich Dickerson. “That allowed us to do all of the work we had to do to get this all built.”
He said that the new facility will be built to last for the next 60 years and beyond, and if a powerful storm hits, the eight bedrooms upstairs can be used to house officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Army National Guard, American Red Cross, and other aid organizations.
Captiva Fire has been housed at a temporary location next to South Seas for the last year and normal services have been maintained.
Ted Gadoury, project manager from the Fort Myers-based J.L. Wallace, Inc., said he expected construction to take approximately nine months and for another two months to be spent phasing in operations before the station is fully open. He added that a lot of thought was put into its unique design.
“I’d call it an island-style fire station that meets the aesthetics of the island,” said Gadoury. “The architect Todd Sweet spent a lot of time making sure it blended harmoniously with the other structures.”
Michele Demperio, a business developer with Sweet & Sparkman Architects in Sarasota, said the firm has designed many fire stations across the Southwest Florida region, including the Bokeelia Fire Station No. 3 and the Boca Grande Fire Department.
Officials expect construction to go smoothly because it’s starting at the end of the island’s tourism season. Of course, events such as storms or the presence of protected wildlife can delay any project.
For more information on the fire district, visit captivafire.com. Any islanders with an emergency should still call 911 for assistance.