St. George Fire Department opens long-awaited new $9M headquarters downtown

St. George • After nearly two years, the St. George Fire Department finally has a new headquarters.

With the official opening last Friday of Fire Station 1, the new department headquarters at 85 S. 400 East, fire officials and crews have a spacious 23,000 square feet at their disposal, nearly three times the cramped 8,500 square-foot facility it is replacing.

Notably, the two-story station sports the signature pole — the first in Washington County — that firefighters can slide down to respond to calls.

“Everything in the new headquarters is a huge upgrade from the old facility that they have outgrown,” St. George spokesperson David Cordero said, adding the new location will likely promote more interaction with the downtown community.

St. George’s new fire headquarters now graces where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Flood Street chapel once stood. Cordero said the city paid the church $1.1 million for the building, which closed in 2021 due to structural and other issues.

Construction on the new headquarters began in February 2024. Impact fees and capital projects funds were used to build the new $9 million headquarters, which city officials say will provide firefighters easier access to the downtown and improve response times to St. George Boulevard and other arterial roads.

Traffic congestion at the old headquarters, which was recently sold to Utah Tech University, has been an issue.

“With the university’s growing enrollment, there were times when traffic on 1000 East was backed up for two to three blocks and our fire crews have had difficulty responding to a call or returning from an incident,” Fire Chief Robert Stoker said. “Traffic is often at a standstill when the [stoplights] turn red.”

Traffic congestion outside the building mirrored the cramped confines within. There were too few offices, Stoker lamented, resulting in the first marshal and the administrative battalion chief conducting their business at a kitchen table. Further exacerbating matters, half the training room had to be converted into makeshift offices.

“Nobody had any privacy,” the chief added. “Everyone was kind of on top of each other.”

Major upgrades and historical nods

Major upgrades over the old headquarters include more offices for department administrators, who will no longer be scattered at stations throughout the city. It also features ample storage space and rooms for meetings, exercise, and training. Those are complemented by four bays for the engines, ladder trucks and other vehicles, and a patio for outdoor gatherings.

Black-and-white photos line the headquarters’ main hall. One shows St. George firefighters who were newly returned from military service in World War II. Another shows the original charter members of the fire department. Bricks from the old Flood meetinghouse adorn a wall on the west section of the hallway.

In the nearby “Antique Bay,” the department’s first engine, a candy-apple red 1936 Studebaker, is on display, along with old self-contained breathing apparatuses and myriad other firefighting gear.

“This is our way of paying tribute to our history and those who have served,” said Stoker, who has logged 40 years with the department, 27 of them as chief.

The old headquarters dates back to 1986, when St. George’s population was about 28,000 and the department had one full-time fire chief and 50 volunteers. In 1992, Stoker became St. George’s second full-time, paid firefighter.

Today, St. George’s population has topped 104,000, and the department has grown right along with it, now numbering 85 full-timers, up to a dozen part-timers and 40 volunteers. As nice as the old headquarters was, Stoker said it was surrounded by the university and businesses.

“So it’s nice to be located downtown, where we are neighbors with ... the many residents who live there,” Stoker said.