Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy Program

In November of 2003, 69% of people voting in Seattle approved the Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy. Over a nine-year period this program, which started in 2004, will use levy proceeds and other funding to:

• upgrade, renovate, or replace 32 neighborhood fire stations;
• construct a new training facility and a new Fire Alarm Center;
• establish emergency preparedness facilities and disaster response equipment that includes a modern, seismically safe Emergency Operations Center, emergency community supplies, emergency shelter power generators, and emergency water supply capacity for fire fighting in the event the City's fire hydrants are disabled;
• and build a new large fire boat, a new small fire boat, and renovate the Chief Seattle fireboat.

The Mayor greets guests at the Fire Station 10 dedication on May 17, 2008. The facility is the first new fire station in Seattle in 30 years.

The Leschi, Seattle's new primary fireboat, arrived in Elliott Bay on April 17. With a water-pumping capacity of 20,000 gallons per minute and a top speed of 14 knots, the 108-foot boat is the core of Seattle's saltwater fireboat fleet.