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From Phil Stenholm:
Another chapter in the story of the **History of the Evanston Fire Department**
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Back in 1986, as enthusiasm began to wane over the proposed Fire Station Relocation Plan, the renowned Rand Corporation was brought in by the Evanston City Council to perform an independent evaluation of the Evanston Fire Department. Their task was to analyze whether relocating one or more fire stations could improve response times to both structure fires and EMS calls. The council informed Rand that Station #2 and Station #4 were essentially fixed in place, while moving Station #1, Station #3, or Station #5 was fair game.
Rand's initial findings revealed two key areas with the highest incidence of structure fires and EMS calls over the preceding two decades. One was a square-mile area bordered by Howard Street to the south, Ridge Avenue to the west, Main Street to the north, and Lake Michigan to the east, with its focal point at Oakton and Custer—basically Station #2's first-due area. The other was another square-mile region bounded by Dempster Street to the south, the Metropolitan Sanitary District canal to the west and north, and the C&NW RR tracks north of Emerson Street and Asbury Avenue south of Emerson to the east, with its center at Emerson and Dodge. While the downtown area saw a high volume of EMS calls, it experienced fewer structure fires.
Rand confirmed that Station #2 in the southeastern part of Evanston was doing a solid job covering its square mile. However, the farthest intersections from any fire station in 1986—Church and Pitner, Emerson and Hartrey, and Foster and Grey—all fell within this second square mile. It wasn’t surprising, then, that Rand concluded that moving Station #1 to Lake and Ashland and consolidating Stations #3 and #5 into a new station at Ashland and Noyes would significantly reduce response times for the 5th Ward.
Unfortunately, this improvement came at a cost. Response times to incidents in the downtown area and particularly in the northwest corner of the city would increase, though overall citywide average response times would still see a slight decrease.
In addition, Rand suggested placing the “jump ambulance†at Station #2 and staffing it with personnel from Truck Company 22 when necessary. They also recommended placing the two full-service MICU ambulances at the new Station #1 at Lake and Ashland and at the new Station #3 at Ashland and Noyes. Interestingly, Rand did not advocate for placing an ambulance at Fire Station #4, even though this would have meant Station #4 would only have three firefighters instead of five. The EFD chiefs were adamant that none of the fire stations should be manned by such a small crew.
With Rand’s report advocating for constructing new fire stations at 1500 Lake Street and 2210 Ashland Avenue, it seemed inevitable that these stations would be built. However, the EFD chiefs disagreed with certain aspects of the Rand Report, particularly the deployment of companies. They decided to move the second engine proposed by Rand for the new Station #1 to the new Station #3 instead. Additionally, they chose to place the two full-service MICU ambulances at Stations #3 and #4 rather than at Stations #1 and #3.
But just as political opposition had scuttled plans for a new Station #2 at Kamen Park in South Evanston shortly after it was proposed, unexpected resistance emerged against the proposed new station at Ashland and Noyes once Rand’s report was released.
Residents in the "High Ridge" area of northwest Evanston—northwest of Crawford and Gross Point Road—were concerned that moving the closest fire station to Ashland and Noyes would result in a minimum 5½-to-6-minute response time to fires and medical emergencies in their neighborhood. They argued that just because their neighborhood had fewer calls shouldn’t mean they’d receive inferior emergency services.
Meanwhile, Wilmette Fire Station #27 at 747 Illinois Road was only a mile away from Central and Crawford. Engine 27 and Ambulance 27 could have responded to incidents in the "High Ridge" area within two or three minutes. An "automatic aid" agreement between Wilmette and Evanston might have alleviated this issue, but such an arrangement was never proposed, likely because Evanston had little to offer Wilmette in return.
Ultimately, the city council agreed to rebuild Fire Station #4 and remodel Station #2. Ambulance 2 was relocated from Station #1 to Station #4 in 1987. By 1989, the new Station #4 was rebuilt on the site of the original Station #4 at a cost of $643,000. Station #2 underwent extensive renovations in 1990 to accommodate female firefighters and expand the apparatus floor. In 1991, Truck Company 21 moved from Station #1 to Station #3, rebranding itself as "Truck Company 23."
With a newly rebuilt firehouse now operational in southwest Evanston and Truck Company 23 stationed at Station #3, Evanston’s new Fire Chief, James Hunt (formerly of Cape Coral, Florida), proposed in March 1993 that Station #1 be relocated about a mile northwest to a vacant lot previously occupied by a gas station at the southeast corner of Emerson and Wesley. This location was roughly midway between the proposed new stations at 1500 Lake Street and 2210 Ashland Avenue.
Under Chief Hunt’s plan, Station #3 and Station #5 would remain where they were. Even with Engine 21 stationed on Emerson Street, it would still be feasible to divide Engine 23’s district between Engine Company 21 (east) and Engine Company 25 (west), with the Metropolitan Sanitary District canal acting as the boundary. Station #1 at 909 Lake Street would be repurposed as the department’s new headquarters, housing training classrooms, administrative offices, and equipment storage—a concept originally proposed in the 1984 Fire Station Relocation Plan.
Despite pushback from downtown Evanston merchants and affluent lakefront residents of the 1st Ward who opposed moving Station #1, Chief Hunt’s proposal gained widespread support among residents in the 5th Ward (who finally got a fire station), as well as those in the 6th Ward in northwest Evanston and the 7th Ward in northeast Evanston (who wanted to retain their existing stations). The city council quickly approved the plan.
However, the new Station #1 at 1332 Emerson Street took almost five years to complete, opening in February 1998. Unexpectedly high construction costs nearly doubled the project’s budget from $1.2 million to $2.2 million. Similarly, converting the old Station #1 into the EFD’s new headquarters faced significant delays. For several years, the fire department’s administrative offices were housed in cramped quarters on the second floor of leased commercial space on Dodge Avenue.
This saga highlights the complexities of balancing modernization with community needs—and underscores the challenges of implementing long-term planning in a rapidly changing urban environment.