The Milwaukee Fire Department yesterday celebrated the reopening of Fire Station 28 in Milwaukee’s Merrill Park neighborhood. The 120-year-old station is the first to be added to the fleet since 1956.
It’s part of Milwaukee County’s Shared Services Program, which encourages collaboration among its 14 fire departments, to improve response times and better serve communities. Fire Station 28 first opened in 1905 and was shuttered in 2018 due to budget cuts, becoming a non-emergency station and recruiting hub.
Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said recommissioning the station is what the city needs.
"We have had the obvious uptick in emergency responses that everybody is quite aware of already," he said. "The city could easily be classified as in crisis."
Lipski said the Merrill Park neighborhood, on Milwaukee’s west side, has suffered numerous multi-building fires in recent years. He also said there’s a need for improved emergency coverage due to a rise in violent crime and vehicle accidents.
"Having a fire station uniquely positioned in the middle of a city block — and this is really our only one that's designed like this — places it in a key position to truly be a part of a neighborhood."
The city was able to reopen fire station 28 after an offer from Wauwatosa, which is placing one of its engines at station 35, in the nearby Bluemound Heights neighborhood, to free up an engine for the previously-shuttered Merrill Park station.
"The community gets the closest, most appropriate response asset," Lipski said. "They get the closest fire truck or they get the closest battalion chief or paramedic unit, as opposed to having an iron curtain between all these different entities."
Edward Fallone, chair of the fire and police commission said in recommissioning the fire station, department leaders have found a creative solution that provides improved public safety and minimal fiscal cost.
"The winners here are obvious: the residents of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa who are going to see shorter response times and expanded coverage," said Fallone. "Also winning are the overstretched and overburdened firefighters of the City of Milwaukee."
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said reopening the station is a model for the problem-solving approaches Milwaukee needs moving forward, as it contends with limited revenue.
