Central Fire District back to “business as usual”2 months after Ririe station fire

RIGBY, Idaho (KIFI) - The Central Fire District is figuring out how to move forward after its Ririe station burned to the ground Jan. 3.

The fire station has since been demolished. Besides the building, the flames claimed four fire trucks and caused well more than $1 million in damages.

“The last two months have been busy, busy, busy,” Central Fire Chief Carl Anderson said. “The insurance company works with us. Work goes on while you're doing this as well."

Fortunately, three of the four destroyed trucks have not been in demand.

"We had a water tender in there,” Anderson said. “We had a couple wildland trucks that weren't being used at the time because this is not the season for wildland fires. We have not yet missed them. They haven't been needed yet."

Local News 8 asked if the station’s destruction has increased response times.

"We have not yet had to call out for a water tender in our Ririe area,” Anderson asserted. “We've been blessed that we haven't had anything major. Other than that water tender, those other two trucks normally would not go out on a house fire."

Anderson said the fire district has finally reached the point where it can start to rebuild.

"We have done the demolition, so it is time for us to look to the future,” he explained. “Do we rebuild what we had, or do we start rebuilding and add to what we had? We have not had living quarters at any of our stations. Maybe it’s time that we added some living quarters in our Ririe station.”

"Funding is always a concern,” he added. “It could be tight for a year or two, for sure, but there will be things that we'll be able to do."

Local News 8 asked if it was more important to build a new station or replace the lost trucks.

"It's more important to get that tender bay rebuilt,” Anderson said. “If a new truck was ordered, we're looking at a period of three years. If we went used, I would need some place to house it."

Anderson said service has never been interrupted and described the current situation as “business as usual.” He expressed gratitude that nothing more important was destroyed.

“We were lucky, I guess, on this,” he said. “There’s a small town in Missouri that had a fire, and they lost all seven of their trucks. The nearest fire station might be an hour's drive away.”

“Whereas within our district,” he continued, “anything that happens in Ririe, you'd get a response from Rigby as well in 10, 15 minutes."

Anderson said the fire district has received its first insurance check and they expect to receive more soon. Whatever isn’t used to pay for the demolition will go towards rebuilding the station.