New west side Hoffman Estates fire station opens

Hoffman Estates Fire Chief Robert Gorvett cited the housing boom on the village's west side as reason for building a new fire station.

Station No. 24 stands north of Shoe Factory Road on Beacon Pointe Drive, just south of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. It replaces a station on Pratum Avenue that's just 17 years old, and Monday was the new firehouse's first day of operation.

When the Pratum station was built in 1992, its location was more central to the west side community, Gorvett said. But housing expansion caused that to shift and forced the fire department to revaluate its service requirements.

"We needed to improve our response time," he said.

With the new station, the department has already seen a response time improvement of 90 seconds, which Gorvett called "significant," even though the station has only been open a few days.

When responses reach the six-minute mark, that's when a victim is in danger of serious injury, he said.

Hoffman Estates was given a reminder of that earlier this month, as members of the fire department and park district were recognized by village officials for their quick response in coming to the aid of Doug Watson, who collapsed during a pickup basketball game after a heart attack last year. The ailment Watson suffered from is often fatal, but paramedics arrived three minutes after the 911 call and saved his life.

Development has grown so much on the west side that a GPS tracking unit won't yet be able to locate the new station's address at 5775 Beacon Pointe Drive. Besides the fire department services, the village has been trying to lure a grocery store to better serve residents.

The village board issued bonds last year to pay for the $6 million building, part of the same loan that's helping to pay for the upcoming police station and a new water tower. Fire station No. 24 will house five firefighter-paramedics and, unlike the old building, the new one has a lower level with an emergency management meeting room where police, fire and public works staff can gather in the event of a villagewide emergency.

Replacing a station and moving personnel isn't new for Hoffman Estates. Gorvett said it's happened twice previously. In 1975, Station No. 22 on Hassell Road was moved to Moonlake Boulevard, while in 1960 the original station on Illinois Boulevard was moved to Flagstaff Lane. Gorvett said last week's move took a full day.

The department has four stations total.