LAYTON—The new Layton City Fire Department Station 54 opened its doors to the public Nov. 22 after many years of planning. The station will serve the eastside of Layton and provide a quicker response time.

“The station has been planned for quite some time,” said Layton Fire Chief Kevin Ward. “Property tax funds were used to build the station and hire personnel. It allows for a four minute response time that helps that side of the city. That impacts the overall response time in the city because we’ve added an engine.”

Ward said over the past 19 years calls have increased by two and a half times. “We’ve added personnel but not a station. This gives us an added capacity of four engines so they can respond if there are multiple calls.”

It will also serve the wildland interface, he said. “If there are fires on the east bench we have a better chance to catch the fire so it doesn’t turn into a bigger fire.”

Six personnel are assigned to the new 10,000 square foot station, said Ward. “There will always be a minimum of five. It has an engine, a heavy rescue engine for things like extrication, a brush truck and a two person ambulance. All of the staff are cross trained as firefighters and paramedics.”

It is designed so that every firefighter has their own room, he said. “We have a high amount of female firefighters so we want to provide everyone with individual living spaces. We’ve converted older stations with gender neutral bathrooms.”

Station 54 has a gameroom area, kitchen and workout room, said Ward. “Those are for when the firefighters are physically in the house. We also have Diesel exhaust emission filters called airhawks to draw the exhaust away when the engine starts up. We know those emissions are carcinogenic.”

Ward said all of the stations have been upgraded with an alert system. “It’s a room notification system that only notifies those who are needed on the call. It has a ramped tone that gradually builds, not the traditional alarm. It’s called the heart saver tone. The stress of loud clanking and bells has been determined to be detrimental to a firefighter’s health.”

The station is located at 1301 N. Valleyview Dr., said Ward. “I’m excited to put it into service.”