Re-Opened West Richland Fire Station Already Making a Difference

Benton County Fire District 4 had a fire station at 1400 Harrington Road, that had opened in 1977, and it's got a new lease on life.

Station 410 had closed in 2020

Fire Chief Paul Carlyle said since renovations allowed the station to re-open, it's already made a big difference.

The station was closed for nearly five years, then renovations were made to allow it to house a water tender, fire engine, and an ambulance. Plus improvements were made internally. The hiring of additional staff now allows the station to respond to calls faster than some other stations that had to cover its region.

According to information released by Carlyle and Deputy Chief Dan Drayton:

"..analysis compared medical responses in the Station 410 area before and after staffing resumed in June. From January 1 to June 13, 2025, there were 145 medical calls in the area, all handled by units from other stations. During that time, crews took an average of 7.23 minutes (434 seconds) to arrive.

Since personnel began responding from the station on June 14, average response times in the area have dropped to just over five minutes—5.04 minutes (303 seconds). The median response time also decreased from 6.3 minutes to 4.4 minutes, nearly a two-minute reduction."

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It may not seen like huge difference, but especially in medical calls, a couple of minutes can mean the difference between life and death. The re-opened station also reduces strain and workload on other station.