Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue secured a new property west of Interstate 5 last week, marking a key step toward building a long-planned fire station to serve growing areas of Ridgefield.
The property, located near South Royle Road and South 3rd Way just south of Rosauers Supermarket, will become the future home of a roughly 14,000-square-foot station designed to improve emergency response times across west Ridgefield and downtown.
“It would take us seven and sometimes eight minutes to get to those areas, and that's really, you really want to be hitting that five-to-six-minute mark,” Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue Chief John Nohr said.
The new station is expected to cut response times by about two to three minutes, with fire officials emphasizing that even small improvements can have life-saving impacts.
“For choking to death or suffering brain damage from a cardiac event, or a fire that escapes one home and now catches two homes on fire, that two-to-three-minute improvement really is important for response times,” Nohr said.
Once completed, the station will house fire response crews, including a ladder truck and EMS medic unit, which will relocate from the district’s current Station 21 northeast of the Interstate 5 Exit 21 interchange. That facility will remain open but transition to administrative use. Station 21 will continue to serve as the district’s administrative headquarters, with potential plans to shift personnel back there as development increases east of the freeway in the coming years.
“You're probably talking five-to-seven years from now, and maybe longer,” Nohr said. “Depending on how quickly (East Ridgefield) develops, we'll put a crew back over here in the future.”
The land acquisition was made possible through a multi-step property transaction involving the City of Ridgefield. The city purchased a previously planned fire station site on South Hillhurst Road from the fire district for $310,000, allowing the district to redirect those funds toward the new location. The purchase was further supported by a $2 million mitigation agreement tied to the city’s Tax Increment Financing area.
“The city essentially bought (the) Hillhurst (property) from the fire district for $310,000 and then the fire district utilized that money, the $310,000 plus the remainder of that $2 million mitigation amount, to fund the purchase of the property on Royle Road,” Nohr said.
The original Hillhurst site had been intended for a fire station, but changing conditions made it less practical over time. Increased traffic near the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex and improved coverage from a shared station at the fairgrounds reduced the need for that location, according to Nohr.
“What made it a bad location was that the work, the schools and the development in that area made that intersection very busy,” Nohr said.
The new site offers better access to key service areas, including downtown, schools and future developments, while also allowing emergency vehicles to enter and exit without disrupting traffic. For emergencies near the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex and Ridgefield High School on Hillhurst, Nohr said crews will travel south on Royle Road from the station to reach those locations.
Construction on the Ridgefield station is expected to begin after the design and permitting processes, with total project costs estimated at $11 million to $12 million. That funding, along with a separate Woodland station project, will come from a voter-approved fire levy lid lift passed in 2024. The Woodland fire station expansion will allow for the addition of two emergency responders.
“It'll be a 20-year loan, but it's at no additional cost to the taxpayer, beyond our regular fire levy,” Nohr said.
Nohr said the project allows them to improve coverage without immediately adding new staffing, which can be one of the largest long-term expenses.
“We're very excited about being able to build a station west of Interstate-5 that will be able to serve all the way to downtown and along Hillhurst Road, and we're really excited to be able to do it without incurring the cost of additional staffing at this time,” Nohr said.
Groundbreaking is expected in 2026, and construction will take roughly one year, according to Nohr.
