They Fight More Than Fires
Turning to Station 7
The men riding the shiny red rig housed at Station 7 are more than firefighters.
They are true neighbors: fixing bikes, giving advice, watching over the people who live nearby.
Their concern for neighbors begins most mornings at East First and Magnolia, when kids line up to wait for the school bus, wrestling and trading silly jokes on the firehouse lawn.
Capt. Joel Fielder is part of the entertainment, patting heads and showing off fire gear.
“The uniform gets them excited,” he said. “It’s the whole image. We are role models.”
Station 7 has been a popular fixture in the low-income East Sprague neighborhood for more than a century.
“People don’t know quite what goes on behind the garage doors,” Fielder said.
But neighbors count them as friends.
People come to the five-man station for help in sobering up sloppy drunks, bandaging sliced fingers and finding social service agencies.
“There’s a lot of poverty,” said Lt. Lance Jacobson.
The tenor of the neighborhood has changed considerably since fire rigs were once pulled from the station by horse teams.
In the early 1900s, children waited outside for the alarm to sound. The number of bells told how many firefighters were being sent to a call. The more bells, the bigger the fire and the longer the kids could play on the fire poles before the men returned.
“Kids were always in the station then,” Fielder said. “We never wanted to lose that.”
Fire officials once talked about moving the station to Third and Altamont, which would have removed all emergency services from the neighborhood. A police substation moved across the interstate in 1994.
The high cost of relocating kept Station 7 where it is, allowing the community outreach to continue.
“It’s a one-on-one relationship with neighbors down here,” Fielder said. “We get called for everything. No longer is it just firefighting.”
Packs of children on bikes crowd the broad station driveway during the summer, waiting for firefighters to equip them with helmets and tune up their two-wheelers.
Neighbors drop in to chat, cast ballots, hold meetings.
“This is a community center,” Fielding said. “The door is open for anyone that needs us.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo