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Station 81 is located at 855 East Whidbey   Avenue (view on map). Our 21,000 square foot facility was dedicated in 1992 and remains in excellent condition due to the dedication of our firefighters who maintain and care for it. The facility is divided into four portions: East Wing, Apparatus Bay, West Wing and Exterior Training Grounds with structure and hose drying tower.

The east wing of the station houses our business offices, public reception area, drafting room and a 1,200 square foot training facility. The training facility is equipped with modern audio-visual equipment, including a rear-projection television screen that provides cable television, video, DVD, and is linked to the station’s computer system for training purposes. The classroom can accommodate 73 people and can be divided into two equally sized training rooms. Our training facility is utilized as part of the Island County Fire Training Academy, one of only four accredited academies in Washington State.

The east wing houses two additional rooms essential to the city: The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the back-up facilities for I-Com, Island County’s main dispatch center. In the event of a citywide emergency or disaster, the EOC is the gathering place for all city departments (administration, police, fire, marine, etc.) and becomes the hub of action to overcome the emergency. It provides a station for each department with computers, radios, and land and cellular phone lines.

The west wing of Station 81 is home to our firefighters. We have dorm-style sleeping quarters for six Career Incentive Program participants and bunkroom quarters utilized by Paid-On-Call firefighters working overnight shifts. Common areas include: kitchen, dining, lounge, patio, library facilities and fully equipped physical fitness areas.

The apparatus bay provides secure, indoor protection for our engines and other apparatus and houses our maintenance shop which is equipped for the repair and maintenance of small equipment such as Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBAs), nozzles, portable generators, hand tools, etc. There are automatic doors on both the south and north ends of the bay to allow for quick exit of all apparatus.

The station is equipped with a 60 kW diesel generator with an automatic transfer switch. The computers, apparatus bay doors, SCBA air compressor, base radios, EOC, I-Com, HVAC systems, and kitchen facilities are connected to this emergency power service. The station is protected by a National Fire Protection Association 13 wet-sprinkler system and an automatic fire alarm system. We have stand alone smoke alarms in all sleeping quarters and all personnel are trained in our evacuation plan. The station is secured by code-locked doors 24 hours a day with the added security of key-locked doors during non-business hours.