BOZEMAN — Early Thursday morning, a family’s home was engulfed in flames less than two miles from Central Valley Fire District’s shuttered Station 2 on Springhill Road. What should have been a four-minute emergency response stretched into 15—a delay officials say could have made a difference.
“A lot of people don't know that a fire will double in size every 60 seconds,” says Central Valley Fire Deputy Chief Jeff Hurley.
Watch the story here:
Deputy Chief Hurley says ever since Station 2 closed in 2023, concerns over response times have weighed heavily on the department.
“We have been concerned that there was going to be large-scale events out here with poor response times, and unfortunately, it happened. Our crews that responded did a phenomenal job and they did a really good job, but the damage could have been less and we could have done better with better response times,” Hurley says.
Deputy Chief Hurley walked me through the empty station on Thursday, showing trucks still parked inside and rooms collecting dust.
“You see a fire station, you just naturally assume that there is a firefighter in there. There is a lot of people that have recently moved here that have no idea that there is no coverage over here. They have no paramedics over here, they have no firefighters over here,” Hurley says.
According to Hurley, fully staffing Station 2 with at least nine firefighters would require about $1.1 million per year.
“It is uncomfortable for us to put that sign out front, but we think that it is important that we let our community know really what is going on here,” Hurley says.
Over the past several years, Central Valley Fire has explored grants, regional contracts, and proposed mill levies to address the staffing and funding shortfall.
“We haven't discussed doing another mill levy yet, but the citizens have just said no the last two times. Maybe we are hoping that the community partners would come in and stand shoulder to shoulder and have some sort of successful funding for this organization,” Hurley says.
One option on the table was applying for SAFER grants, a federal program aimed at helping departments hire and retain firefighters—but a freeze on federal funding has stalled those efforts for now.
Through it all—the funding struggles, the closure, and now this fire—one message Hurley hopes resonates with the community: “It’s for you, it's for you. Our mill levies are very modest as it is for this community. The increase is one fancy cup of coffee a month. That is not a lot to ask.”
Central Valley Fire serves more than 36,000 residents. And Hurley stresses that even if this week’s fire didn’t happen in your neighborhood, the effects of limited resources ripple throughout the area.
“Those resources get stripped from their area to come down here, which then opens up that area, and they have units there. So it is like a domino effect; it is all of our concerns,” Hurley says.
