'Significant Milestone': Santee Celebrates New Fire Station With Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

SANTEE, CA — City officials, first responders and community members recently celebrated the grand opening of a new fire station in Santee.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday for Interim Fire Station 20, which opened Oct. 14 inside the Santee Operations Yard.

Interim Fire Station 20 is the first fire station added to the community since 1964. The temporary station was opened to support growing service needs while the city begins the process of building a permanent station at the same location.

Vice Mayor Rob McNelis called the opening of the station "a significant milestone" for the community during the event's opening remarks.

"This moment represents more than just the opening of a facility, it represents our city's ongoing commitment to public safety, strategic growth, and service to our residents," McNelis said.

"As our city continues to grow, so does our responsibility to ensure that every neighborhood has fast, reliable access to emergency services," McNelis said. "Interim Fire Station 20 is a vital step in that mission, expanding our reach and improving emergency response times, especially here in the southwest area of Santee."

Interim Fire Station 20 at 9534 Via Zapador Way is staffed by professional firefighter/paramedics and equipped with a Type 1 fire engine. The city plans to relocate an existing paramedic ambulance to Interim Station 20 at a later date.

Santee has two permanent fire stations, Fire Station 4 on Cottonwood Avenue and Fire Station 5 on Carlton Oaks Drive. Plans for a third fire station stem back to the 1980s, Santee Fire Chief Harley Wallace explained during the event.

The new station aims to boost response times in the southwest area of the city.

Prior to the station's opening, firefighters moved Engine 205 from Fire Station 5 to Interim Fire Station 20. According to Wallace, within two hours of being moved to the new station, the newly renamed Engine 20 responded to its first call off Farrington Court in southwest Santee, an area that has been historically underserved and faced long response times.

It took Engine 20 just four minutes to respond to the incident, while it took stations 4 and 5 more than nine minutes to respond, Wallace said.

"That first call really shows what we collectively set out to do — bringing a much quicker response, bringing lifesaving paramedic care, and fire and emergency response to a community in half the time of what they were receiving service before," Wallace said. "That's a tremendous accomplishment."

Councilmembers Ronn Hall, Laura Koval and Dustin Trotter were also in attendance at the event, as well as City Manager Wendy Kaserman and several retired fire chiefs.

The city plans to construct a permanent fire station in the same location in the future.

Officials are exploring a range of funding opportunities, including state and federal grants. According to the city, there is currently no proposal for voter-approved local funding, though it remains one of several options that will be considered.

"We're already seeing the difference in this community," Wallace said regarding emergency response times. "We're seeing this pay off. I'm very, very excited for what this means to the Santee community."