SAND HOLLOW, Idaho — Sand Hollow's volunteer firefighters have answered calls for help for more than a decade from a station they don't own.
Now, the department has purchased six acres for a new station and training grounds.
For Helen Visser, supporting Sand Hollow Fire has meant making room.
"I've got a garage I don't use that gets used every winter to put something out of the snow and under a roof," Visser said.
WATCH: Sand Hollow’s volunteer fire department plans a permanent home on six newly purchased acres
Sand Hollow Fire Chief Toby Robinson said some equipment sits outside, while neighbors and Parma Fire help shelter other vehicles during winter.
The department has repeatedly asked to buy its Bureau of Land Management-owned station at Exit 13, but Robinson said acquiring it would require paying for surveys and studies.
"There's very minimal difference in what we paid for this property and what we were going to have to pay," Robinson said.
Instead, the department purchased land on Sand Hollow Road from neighbors willing to sell to support the firefighters.
Robinson said the new site moves the department from the district's outer edge to a more central location. He expects that to improve response times, though reaching the interstate will take a little longer.
"They were, they were very generous,and I would almost call it a donation," Robinson said. "I mean, we, we did pay for it."
Work has already begun on the new land. The department has portable building units ready to create classroom space.
"That's all going to be leveled out and that's where the portable classroom's going to be," Robinson pointed out.
An old molasses mill on the property will stay at the family's request, becoming part of the training area next to the classrooms.
Plans call for the new station and offices to be built across Sand Hollow Road, with plans to keep the BLM building as Station 1.
For Jennifer Riebe, the new property represents room for volunteers to prepare.
"This new property will give them the ability to train and grow and, and adapt to the community as it grows," Riebe said.
In the 11 years that Sand Hollow has been its own fire district, only three dispatches have been for a structure fire. All the rest have been for vegetation fires.
Visser has already seen the department's response firsthand, when a fire burned a shed at one of her wells this summer.
"They were there so fast they saw the fire before we did," Visser said.
Robinson said the department plans to be in its portable training buildings by this spring and hopes to have Station 2 built within two years.
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