Cudahy has a new fire chief — and will soon have a new multimillion dollar fire station
Cudahy has a new fire chief and soon the city may also have a new fire station.
The city currently operates two aging stations, and new plans call for combining both into a new multimillion dollar two-story station which would replace Station 2 at 3115 E. Ramsey Ave.
The Cudahy Common Council on Jan. 18 approved up to $11 million for construction of the new station. While the project itself is approved, it will take about six months for architectural plans to be created. Those plans will go up for bid and those bids will indicate the final total cost.
Built in 1969, Station 2 is primarily used for training and mutual aid while Station 1, built in 1956 at 4626 S. Packard Ave., is the administrative headquarters.
In the last five or six years, Station 2 has really shown its age, according to Cudahy’s new Fire Chief Jeff Bloor.
“The roof has a lot of issues” especially in the winter, Bloor said, estimating both stations had pending “a couple million (dollars) of deferred maintenance,” which would only bring the stations up to the standard from when they were built. Heating and air mechanical systems are also at the end of service life and could fail at any time, he added.
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The pandemic has slowed plans for the new fire station
Bloor took over as interim chief in February 2021 following the retirement of Chief Dan Mayer. He was appointed fire chief in October 2021, but his official ceremony was pushed to January due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bloor, who previously worked as a battalion chief in Cudahy, said Mayer “like all chiefs, developed the officers under him to take over.” Despite this, Bloor is facing things many new chiefs do not, such as the work of planning for the new station during a pandemic.
“It has been an adventure the last year,” he said.
These outward challenges are not the only ones Bloor is facing. Switching to a more office-focused position, with an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule, from a 24-hour shift “as part of the crew on the truck” has been tough because that was very rewarding for him.
“I miss the real hands-on emergency work,” Bloor said. “What really gave me satisfaction and a very strong sense of pride was being able to help people when they needed it most.”
Instead, Bloor spends his days interacting with city officials and the public mostly in a non-emergency capacity. He said instead of handling the equipment it’s now his responsibility to make sure the firefighters have the best equipment “to safely and efficiently handle emergency scenes.”
He has two goals: building the new firehouse and advocating to bring the department up to a paramedic level.
Recently, Franklin’s fire department became the first in Milwaukee County to fully eliminate the Emergency Medical Technician position and have all staff trained as paramedics.
“Paramedics have become the standard,” Bloor said.
Cudahy began discussing a new fire station in 2018 with options ranging from renovation to rebuilding. Bloor said an assessment concluded it would take between $8-9 million to rehabilitate the two stations. That price tag led the city to consider what kind of efficiencies could come from a single station — which would cost only about $10,000 more than the renovation estimate, Bloor said.
Two stations for a city the size of Cudahy is “kind of unheard of,” Bloor said.
Bloor said Station 2 was chosen as the focus for the single station as emergency services could go under the railroad tracks on College Avenue with only a slight delay. Additionally, the city owns the property and it’s centrally located.
Complications arise from Milwaukee County shared services agreement
Bloor said a new station would make room for the department to hire female firefighters as they could have their own space. In the 1950s and ‘60s, fire service was very male-dominated, and the layout of the existing stations reflects that because they only have shared spaces.
Cudahy’s firefighters also need a better place to dispose of biohazards after ambulance calls other than working with a slop sink, Bloor said.
“Back then fire departments didn’t do too many ambulance calls,” he said, but now it's much more common.
In 2021, Cudahy entered into a county-wide shared services agreement. The general rule is “the closest most appropriate resource” is used, Bloor said. Certain policies of the agreement are difficult for Cudahy to comply with considering its current station arrangement. For example, one policy requires four firefighters per station as it takes four to run a ladder truck. Currently, the city has three firefighters on staff per station.
“Shared services pushed us into one firehouse,” Bloor said.
Bloor himself was, in a sense, pushed into fire service. In 1992 he was hired as a paid-on-call firefighter for St. Francis. Originally looking into police science, a friend who wanted to become a firefighter told him about the opening.
Interestingly, when Bloor switched his career track from police work to firefighter, his friend did the opposite and recently retired from the Milwaukee Police Department.
Bloor moved to the Cudahy Fire Department in 1997.
Contact Erik S. Hanley at (262) 875-9467 or erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page and follow him on Twitter at @ES_Hanley.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cudahy fire chief to steer plans for new multimillion-dollar station
