"We're looking forward to it," said Johnson. "It will give us a comfortable base of operations with wide doors."

Construction bids are due April 7, and bids should be awarded and approved by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly at its April 20 meeting, said Mary Griswold, the volunteer KESA administrative assistant. Through grants and service area funding, $1.3 million is available to build and equip the station, she said.

As KESA dreams of a new fire hall, the board is also looking down the line at a site for a westside fire hall somewhere in the Diamond Ridge or Bluff Point area. The service area wraps around Homer and Kachemak City to the west and east.

"It's a difficult area to manage because of its shape," said Johnson.

The McNeil Canyon fire hall and community center design is for a 5,760-square-foot building 64-feet-wide by 90-feet-long, and includes a 1,536-square-foot community center. Johnson said the building will be a metal structure, but painted to be compatible with the nearby school. Outdoor lights operated by motion detectors will be placed on the building, with no lights on poles. The fire hall will in some way commemorate former KESA president Scott Cunningham, who died in an industrial accident last summer. Johnson said the board hasn't decided exactly how to do that.

The fire garage will accommodate the two KESA tanker-pumper engines, two brush trucks on loan from the Alaska Division of Forestry and an Emergency Medical Technician truck. KESA is in the process of acquiring an old Division of Forestry ambulance to use as a utility truck for hauling extra oxygen tanks and other equipment.

A fire this Sunday on Diamond Ridge showed how KESA's relationship with the Homer Volunteer Fire Department, volunteer firefighters living in the KESA service area and KESA equipment can work together with Homer city firefighters and equipment. When the call came in, he drove Engine 21, a 750-gallon pumper tanker, in from Mile 14 East End Road. Two Homer fire department tankers and crews responded first. While some firefighters attacked the fire, other firefighters set up a portable tank and emptied one tanker's water into the tank. That tanker then returned to the Homer fire hall, and began refilling its tanks if needed.

Johnson in Engine 21 then drove up to Diamond Ridge with a full tank of water and connected its pumper to the portable tank. The arrangement meant a tanker was at the downtown station for back-up on the Diamond Ridge fire, or in the event of another fire call.

"It was amazing to go clear out from east side to Diamond Ridge," said Griswold. "It was good we had the resources to be on scene even that far away."

Having firefighters like Johnson in the KESA gives both departments geographic diversity, Griswold said.

"That's very important," she said, "Especially for EMS. That's been proven time and time again."

"There's a few of us here," Johnson said. "We can use more."

With a new fire hall and community center out East End Road, Griswold and KESA board member Paul Pellegrini said there's another advantage: recruiting new firefighters.

"That community hall is a good idea," Pellegrini said. "Anytime you have people hanging around a fire hall."

Griswold said an East End Road fire hall could make some training easier.

"The best thing is with a new station in the neighborhood, it would attract new volunteers reluctant to come into town," she said.

Pellegrini is helping the board locate a fire hall site on the west side of the service area. With land prices increasing, the board decided the sooner a site could be purchased, the better, said Griswold. KESA has looked at a 40-acre borough parcel off of Green Timbers Road, at the top of the Sterling Highway just north of the Alaska State Parks Ranger Station. While the land would cost nothing if the borough transferred it to KESA, there are development costs, such as bringing in a road and power, she said.

KESA is looking for a westside station in the general area from Green Timbers up the highway and about a mile up Diamond Ridge Road. Pellegrini said there is some vacant land in the Diamond View Subdivision. He went to a neighborhood meeting last month and talked about the possibility of a fire hall. He said about 20 people at the meeting representing about a dozen property owners of 60 lots expressed support for a fire hall, even though it would mean amending the subdivision covenants.

There can be some insurance savings for homeowners near a fire hall, Pellegrini said. Insurance rates are based on proximity to a fire hall, available water, equipment and the ability to use the equipment. The more of these factors met, the better the insurance rate. Diamond Ridge has one of two 10,000-gallon underground tanks to provide water for rural areas in the KESA. Griswold said if the house fire on Sunday had gotten out of hand, firefighters could have pumped water out of that tank.

As KESA builds and grows, its relationship with the Homer Volunteer Fire Department could change. Johnson said the contract with HVFD will remain in place and won't change in the near future. He said the current arrangement works well because they don't have to duplicate services.

"Personally, I'm working hard to keep it together," Griswold said of the relationship. "The two departments are working together well."

She said it's important that equipment also be similar and compatible, particularly when fighting difficult fires. All responses and personnel are coordinated through HFVD, Griswold said.

"We have ongoing dialogues," Pellegrini said. "We have a good relationship with Homer Fire. We anticipate that continuing."

"It's a good working relationship," Griswold said. "It's a real good lesson in civics."

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.