6/24/2024
Coos Bay, OR. – Official Release: At the June 18 meeting, Coos Bay City Council approved the receipt of a seismic rehabilitation grant through Business Oregon for the structural stabilization of the Eastside Fire Station.
The Eastside Fire Station was built in 1954. The 5,275 square foot building served as the base of municipal services for the City of Eastside (including Council Chambers, Finance and Public Works offices, Fire, and Police departments) until the merger of Eastside with Coos Bay in 1983. The building has continued to serve the Eastside community as a fire station since that time.
For many years the Coos Bay Fire Department (CBFD) staffed the station 24/7 with one full time employee. In 2002, that practice was deemed both unsafe for the sole firefighter and an inefficient use of the resource (less than 4% of the City’s emergency responses are in the Eastside community). The CBFD maintains the Eastside Fire Station and keeps a reserve fire engine there if an issue with the Isthmus Slough bridge would prohibit or delay the response of resources from Fire Station #1. The City also keeps a stockpile of disaster preparedness supplies within the Station to assist the Eastside community with response and recovery from a natural or man-made disaster.
The CBFD leases the living quarters to Coos Forest Protection Association (CFPA) for the housing of seasonal staff from May to October. Additionally, several community groups utilize the Station for scheduled meetings within the neighborhood.
The southern Oregon coast is extremely vulnerable to a devastating earthquake such as a Cascadia Subduction Zone event with the possibility of an energy release between 7 and 9+ on the Richter scale. The concrete Eastside Fire Station was not designed to withstand an earthquake. Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) has listed the structure’s collapse potential as “very high”.
Eastside has a population of roughly 2,400 permanent residents as well as two schools with up to 1,000 students and staff when school is in session. The City recognizes the need to keep equipment and resources available within Eastside to assist with the response and recovery from an earthquake. With assistance from HGE, a local architect firm with a history of successful grant applications, staff applied for the Seismic Rehabilitation grant and recently received notification of the grant award. This $1,125,000 grant will ensure that the City has a resilient presence in the Eastside neighborhood.
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