The city of Seattle plans to build a $4 million, 8,000 square-foot fire station to replace West Seattle's High Point Fire Station 37, an 81-year-old building that's outdated and no longer meets many industry requirements, said Seattle Fire Department Battalion Chief Molly Douce.

Station 37, at the corner of 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Othello Street, will be rebuilt just three blocks south on the southeast corner of 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Holden Street. The new station will be double the size of the current facility.

The Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy, approved by Seattle voters in 2003, will fund the relocation. During the next several years, the $167 million program will renovate, replace or seismically upgrade 32 of Seattle's 33 fire stations, said Ellen Hansen, communications officer for the levy program and the Seattle Fleets and Facilities Department.

Upgrades to the remaining station located on the downtown waterfront are pending the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project, she said.

The levy was based on a study that found Seattle fire stations do not meet some important industry codes, mostly because the city has not built any new stations since the 1970s, said Douce.

"Our No. 1 priority is any rig, at any station, at any time must be ready for service," she said.

That study also found that many of those stations wouldn't be able to withstand another major earthquake.

"We are building fire stations not just for today but for the next 30, 40 and 50 years," said Douce, adding that a few Seattle stations were damaged in the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake.

Station 37, which has 140,00 addresses in its response area, is too small to accommodate modern changes to fire-fighting codes and is insufficient to support the engines and functions of a working fire station, said Hansen.

"(The renovations and seismic upgrades) are for public safety," she said. "We need to bring them up so they are ready when people need them."

The West Seattle station is designated as a Neighborhood 1 facility because it houses a one-engine company, a reserve engine and four fire fighters (per shift). Douce said that increasing changes in classification demands for facility and engine requirements have amplified the need for larger stations.

Much of the fire fighter's gear is now stored on the main floor where the fire engine is housed. But over time there became a need to protect the gear from ultraviolet light and contaminants, which can have a degrading effect on equipment, said Douce.

Codes now require separate rooms for gear, decontamination, maintenance, storage, eating, sleeping and de-stressing.

"The idea is to keep (the fire fighters) as safe and as effective as possible to serve the public needs," said Douce.

As codes began to require additional gear and changes to the truck's exterior, the available space around the truck in Station 37 has shrunk significantly, said Douce. Now Neighborhood 1 stations must have a 3-foot clearance around the fire engines for equipment checks and maintenance.

It's also critical for an engine company to be able to pull the water hose out for maintenance and cleaning inside the station.

"We currently don't have that opportunity at station 37," said Douce. "Everything is jammed together."

The new stations would also provide separate sleeping quarters for each fire fighter, instead of the dorm-style sleeping quarters they now use.

"Providing a certain amount of privacy really lessens the stress and helps build a better team," said Douce. "We understand fire fighting is a stressful environment and we think it's necessary to provide a breakout space - a room to de-stress."

Seattle's Historic Preservation Board designated the current station, built in 1925, as a historic landmark last October.

Hansen said the risk of damaging the historical structure, as well as a need for a larger site size, was one reason the city sought a different location for the new facility.

The new site was chosen after gathering community input last year, but a major rule for a location is that it maintains or improves the required department emergency response time, which is an average 4 to 6 minutes, according to Helen Fitzpatrick, spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department.

A fire station site must be on relatively level ground and near or on a major arterial, said Douce.

"It's like throwing a pebble into a pond and watching the circle of ripples that it makes - we want to be on that inside wave," she said.

After the new station is built, the historic structure will no longer serve as a fire station. Hansen said the city intends to sell or transfer the property to help purchase the new site. The city also plans to bring the community together to determine what would be an appropriate use for the old fire station.

Allocation of the preferred site hangs on the purchase a single-family house and a surplus Seattle City Light substation.

The Seattle City Council is expected to act on legislation to authorize the purchase in April, but planning and design won't begin until next year. Construction could start as early as late 2007 or early 2008, depending on the permit process, said Hansen.

"We really want to ensure that these facilities are safe in case of an emergency or disaster," said Hansen. "It's very important to the city - not an easy process but an important one."

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at 932.0300 or wseditor@robinsonnews.com