Fire Territory Celebrates 3rd Station

For the general public, it may have seemed that the new Warsaw-Wayne Township fire station came about quickly.

In reality, it’s taken over 10 years, culminating in a “hose uncoupling” ceremony at noon Saturday. The ceremony – the equivaliant of a ribbon-cutting for new fire stations – features a line of guests in front of the fire station bay doors holding two hoses waist high that are attached together. One or two people – in Saturday’s case Wayne Township Trustee Sheila Burner and Mayor Joe Thallemer – then uncouples the hoses.

Saturday’s events at Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Station 3, 620 W. CR 200S, Warsaw, also included a four-hour open house, free food, a flag raising by the Indiana State Police Honor Guard, Warsaw Police Department officer Brad Kellar singing the national anthem, an invocation by WPD Capt. Joel Beam and several short speeches.

Thallemer gave the dedication, saying, “We’re celebrating a new era in the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory, but more importantly public safety. The construction and the occupancy and dedication of this building says a lot about the dedication, along with the safety, of our ambulance, police and fire, all working together to create a very important location in our community.”

He said back in 2009 when the fire territory was formed, there were 13 square miles of service area that the existing two fire stations were responsible to cover. When the agreement was signed between the city and township to create the fire territory, an additional 38 square miles were added. The necessity for the third fire station was evident and the work began to make it a reality. The property for the station was purchased in 2008-09 when Mike Rice was fire chief.

Station No. 3 will provide a quicker response time, especially for the southern portion of the community, he said.

Thallemer finished his comments by thanking the fire territory board and Burner; Fire Chief Mike Wilson and previous chiefs Rice and Mike Brubaker; the city council for its support; Lutheran EMS; and architectural firm MartinRiley out of Fort Wayne. The construction company for the fire station was Mosaic Building Solutions.

“It was a lot of time, a lot of work,” he said.

Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce President and CEO and Warsaw Community Development Corp. Executive Director Rob Parker said the fire station represents growth in the community. He said it represents the opportunity for more housing to be built around that area which increases tax revenues but the station decreases homeowners’ expenses on insurance rates.

“I just want to say thank you to the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Board for your vision, your leadership in making this happen,” Parker said.

Wilson began his comments by noting the fire station was 10 years in the making and there were many people involved. He talked about the building being part of and open to the community. He later explained the hose uncoupling ceremony and its history.

Battalion Chief Rob Barker thanked the fire territory board, Wilson, Brubaker and Rice who helped over the last decade, as well as MartinRiley and Mosaic. “It shows the family of emergency services,” he said, noting the presence of police – including state police – EMS and family members of firefighters for the open house and ceremony.

After giving his list of thanks, Scott Sigerfoos, Lutheran EMS director, said the collaboration to bring about the station was “really amazing.” Prior to becoming Lutheran EMS, it was Multi-Township EMS and it’s served the community for about 40 years, but it was really the last 10 to 12 years that “defined us as an agency.”

Lutheran has a dedicated bay in the fire station, along with two bedrooms for EMTs.

The last speaker of the ceremony was Burner, who noted she got to see the fire station come to fruition beside three Michaels – Rice, Brubaker and Wilson.

“We got the project done. It’s gorgeous. I love it. And thanks to everyone who had a part in it. Thank you,” she said.

After the ceremony, Thallemer and City Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins revealed a little more background in having the EMS be a part of the fire station.

“We saw the opportunity to get the ambulance in here. With the location south of town, it just made perfect sense. Lutheran EMS actually has a written agreement with the city for those two bedrooms for the EMS personnel and then for the bay. Little did I realize, this had been an ongoing concern for many, many years,” Thallemer said.

Dobbins said, “It certainly had been. I started with EMS back in 1977 and I was there for about 30 years, but I had talked with past fire chiefs … and we talked about it but we could not just get everybody to come together. And I think there’s a different mentality now because some of the younger fellows, they want to get out, they want to do things, they want to integrate. And it was just a difficult ‘do.’ EMS needed more space at that time, but it just wasn’t working out to go with the fire territory.”

Thallemer said, “With us doing first response and EMS providing the calls, it was natural. And then joining together with Wayne Township, Wayne Township was responsible for providing emergency services for the township, so this was just a great opportunity, a very simple opportunity to get it done here, but Cindy had worked a long time.”

“I would say the last 10 to 12 years, I would say it’s really come together as a collaborative effort between fire and EMS and everything. It’s really great to see this happen. I wanted it for a long, long time,” Dobbins said.