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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Bigelow’s older fire station to be razed

A new fire station is being constructed next to the old station in the rapidly growing area at Bigelow Gulch and Jensen roads. The older brick station is scheduled to be demolished after the completion of the new one.. (J. BART RAYNIAK / The Spokesman-Review)
Christopher Rodkey Staff writer
A new fire station is being constructed next to the old station in the rapidly growing area at Bigelow Gulch and Jensen roads. The older brick station is scheduled to be demolished after the completion of the new one.. (J. BART RAYNIAK / The Spokesman-Review)

A historic cabbage patch may mean the end of a recently constructed fire station north of Spokane Valley.

Crews have been busy building the new $2.1 million Station 95 at 8118 Bigelow Gulch Road to replace the current station, which was built only 17 years ago. When Spokane County widens Bigelow Gulch Road to four lanes, the road will come right up to the current station’s bay doors, making the building unusable as a fire station.

The brick building is scheduled to be demolished once the new station is completed, and that concerns Northwood resident Renee Rolando.

“Oh, it’s not that old,” Rolando said. “They have to be able to do something with it other than make rubble.”

She’s been paying attention to the construction for the past few months and wondered if the old station could be used as a community center or SCOPE station.

It can’t, said Doug Bleeker, deputy chief for Spokane County Fire District 9. There’s not enough room for both buildings on the fire station’s plot at Bigelow Gulch and Jensen roads.

“It was never on our radar screen to have the two buildings on the same property,” Bleeker said. “We just can’t do it; there’s just too many things to get in the way.”

The county has been planning for years to expand Bigelow Gulch Road from two lanes to four. Much of the road can be widened simply by adding a lane to either side of it, but there is a piece of land – originally used for growing a unique variety of cabbage – just to the north of Fire Station 95.

Because of that land’s historic value, the county had to push Bigelow Gulch to the south, which means the widened road would be mere feet away from the current Station 95’s bay doors.

“We won’t be able to get into the station without stopping a few lanes of traffic,” Bleeker said.

Building codes dictate that the old station and the new station can’t be on the same property, because the two can’t share the same septic field and parking areas, Bleeker said.

The fire district looked at other options, such as remodeling the current station or buying and building on another piece of land, but constructing a new station on the current property was the most cost-effective way to serve the area, Bleeker said.