WESTFIELD, Ind. — The City of Westfield is preparing to break ground on a brand-new fire station in the next month or so.
City leaders said the new station can't come soon enough. Westfield's explosive growth over the years is leading to a critical need for more firefighters.
"When you compare Westfield to our sister cities like Fishers or Noblesville when they were of similar size, Fishers had five fire stations and Noblesville had seven," Westfield Mayor Scott Willis said. "We have three in Westfield. So, we are behind. We’re not up to national standards in terms of fire stations per square mile."
Westfield is vastly different than it was 20 years ago, and fire chief Rob Gaylor has watched that change unfold since joining the department.
"Since then, we’ve seen our population more than double," Gaylor said.
And if you look around Westfield, that growth is not slowing down anytime soon.
"Every day goes by in Westfield, and we’re growing," he said. "In the next five to six years, we’re anticipating up to 30,000 more residents in our city."
Naturally, when the population is booming, the number of 911 calls is growing too. In fact, those calls are up by more than 32% in the last five years.
"That’s a strain on the men and women in the organization," Gaylor said. "So, how do you deal with that? We’ve got to grow with the community."
Westfield only has three fire stations that cover 56 square miles. City leaders said that is not sustainable, especially as much of that land develops over time.
"If we take the number of calls divided by the number of stations in the big four cities in Hamilton County," Gaylor said, "Carmel is averaging 775 calls per station, Fishers is averaging 636 calls per station, Noblesville is averaging 567 calls per station and Westfield is averaging 810 calls per station."
Chief Gaylor said Westfield might not be getting more calls than neighboring cities, but those communities have more fire stations to divvy up the calls. If Westfield fire crews are tied up, other agencies often have to jump in.
"We couldn’t do without them, quite frankly," Willis said. "There have been critical moments where they have bailed us out because we just didn’t have the bandwidth to make a run."
This exactly why Westfield will break ground on its fourth fire station in the next month or so. It will be located on the city’s north side.
Mayor Willis and Chief Gaylor said this will help improve emergency response drastically.
"It’s a critical need, and when you think of public safety, when you have to dial 911, seconds matter," Willis said. "And right now our average run times are just a tick under six minutes per run. National standards say we need to be closer to three and half to four minutes per run."
Willis said he believes a new station will help reduce response times. Plans are also underway for a fifth fire station. The city is in the early stages of planning a sixth fire station as well.
The City of Westfield said its fourth fire station, Station 84, is scheduled to open in October 2025.
The city has already begun hiring firefighters for Station 84, and will likely hire firefighters for Station 85 starting next year.