New fire station in the works for Tarkio

The Mineral County Commissioners on March 26 approved a plan to add 66 parcels to the Superior Rural Fire District, which formalized the process that has been going on for over a year to build small fire department in the Tarkio area.

“What that allowed us to do is start negotiating to acquire this 2-acre piece of property to build a fire station. We’ve been working with the DNRC and they have now approved SVFD (Superior Volunteer Fire Department) to submit which allows us to purchase, for a small amount of money, the rights to build a fire station,” explained Steve Temple, Chief of the SVFD.

This will allow the SVFD to occupy the property on the basis as the fire department but if it were ever abandoned, it would go back to the DNRC.

“That’s kind of the DNRC process of allowing money to go into the School Trust because 40% of the state's schools are funded by the School Trust and managed by the DNRC,” he continued.

Temple said that Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, was very helpful in the process and a simplified explanation.

“He said that you’ll get a right to build here and use it as a fire station, but you won’t own the underlying land. You’ll own the rights to be there. That is what’s in the pipeline right now and we expect a decision by the Governor’s Office the middle of August.”

Dirt will start moving after that with pad locations to be determined and where the water tank will located. A 48,000-gallon water tank was a vital part of the puzzle so the station could serve all structures in a 5-mile radius of the station. That came to fruition last summer when a SVFD firefighter was assigned a tender to sit on DNRC land during the fire season. This assignment generated enough money to pay for the water tank. At this point, everything is funded, except the building itself.

“It’s anybody’s guess what it will cost with the crazy swings in construction costs today but an estimate of $200,000 is a starting point,” said Temple and a grant is needed but he feels certain that it’s attainable.

“Fire is a high priority for Montana”, he said.

“With all of the Covid money out there still roaming around and the high value Montana has put on rural fire departments, I’m pretty confident that we’ll be able to get a grant. All of the other complicated pieces are done already, so the grant should be the easiest piece.”

The overall size is roughly 40’x60’.

“It’s a two-bay building, two engines deep. A brush truck, a structure engine and a tender will be housed here because the bigger equipment will be kept in Superior and on its way as needed,” he explained.

The aim of a rural station of this size is to have volunteer firefighters that live close by meet at the station and deploy immediately to the fire with the intentions of knocking it down as best as they can. As this is taking place, the other equipment and firefighters are blazing to the scene with much more powerful resources. This method hinders the fire and can be and assessed by the time other assistance arrives.

“We’ve got a new brush truck coming, just like that one,” said Temple as he pointed to the red one-ton Chevrolet flatbed stacked with equipment.

“We also have an almost brand-new structure engine that’s being given to us. That’s a big deal. That’s a $300,000 piece of equipment.”

Josh Pecora, 23, was a junior firefighter in Pullman, Washington at age 14. During college in the Tri-Cities, he joined the Benton County Fire District 4. Then there was a move to Utah where he married and became a member with Fairview Fire Department until moving to Superior almost three years ago and joined the SVFD.

Pecora and his family live a mile from the location of the new fire house.

“I love this location. Last year we had a little fire up in a field that paged-out as Tarkio Loop, and we couldn’t see the smoke down at my house so having this station up here on the hill is just ideal.”

Pecora will be the captain of the Tarkio Volunteer Fire Department and has 17 volunteers in the immediate area but could always use more to help to battle fires. The building will be located at the corner of the Tarkio Loop Road and Nemote Creek where the old Tarkio School sat for many years.