Residents’ memories of station to be incorporated in new Station 4
Sedona’s firefighters have been saving lives and properties for over 70 years, and they’re hoping you might have some photos of their labors.
Construction of Sedona Fire District’s new Station 4 at 401 Jordan Road is underway after its groundbreaking on Sept. 29, but now the district is asking residents to help build its future by looking back.
“The entryway to the new Station 4 is going to have a memory wall, and it’s going to track the decades from the ’50s to the 2000s, and just kind of highlight the volunteers that built Sedona Fire into what it is today,” SFD Chief Ed Mezulis said. “Our district was born out of community, wanting to care for the community and they saw a gap. And from the very early days, we were really aggressive with a good ambulance service and trying to keep up and be as modern as we could be for a small community.”
SFD is asking former volunteers and retirees to share photos of firefighters and crews, fire apparatus, fire stations, community events, training, behind-the-scenes moments and any other memories from years past. Mezulis said SFD is also looking for everything from old stories to uniforms.
“All of the above are wanted because it’s going to be etched on aluminum plates, much like the 9/11 Memorial” at Station 6, he said. “The storyboard is going to be etched on those plates, so it’s weatherproof and resistant, and it’ll be just kind of a wall of a storyline as you walk into the station.”
The current station opened in 1972 as part of a new Coconino County complex on Forest Road. Beside the firehouse, the county built a sheriff’s office substation and jail with the Sedona Justice Court upstairs, a building completed by mid-July according to the Aug. 24, 1972, issue of the Red Rock News, which announced a public open house for the station.
“The Sedona Substations’ communication system is Chief Deputy Will Steele’s pride and joy. When it is completed and fully manned, it will be one of the best in the entire southwest,” the Red Rock News story reads. “Many years ago, Will Steele was the only deputy sheriff between Flagstaff and Cottonwood. His nearest officer back-up was 28 miles away, in Flagstaff. Will patrolled alone and had to rely solely on mobile radio for emergency assistance. Often times the radio system was inadequate, and several times his life was in jeopardy as a result.”
“The Red Rock News article says ‘all that Sedona firemen are going to need for 20 years,’” Mezulis said. However, the station is aging with structural issues, such as a crack down the main vehicle bay and the absence of a pull-through for vehicles, requiring the new station.
Station 4 was staffed full-time by a paramedic in the 1980s, with volunteers handling fire calls. The Sedona-Oak Creek Volunteer Fire Department, serving Sedona residents in Coconino County, and the Red Rock Fire District, serving Sedona residents in Yavapai County, merged to form the Sedona Fire District in 1993. Career staffing grew in the 1990s, and by 1999 Station 4 had a full-time crew of four and a battalion chief. It became fully career-staffed around 2001.
“The station also served as the primary fire dispatch center for the region covering the Verde Valley, Sedona, Black Canyon City and Munds Park,” Mezulis wrote. “This addition to accommodate the dispatch center was built in 1984 and served the region until 2015.”
The new station is anticipated to be complete in November 2027, Mezulis said. SFD will keep the annex and its radio tower on Forest Road and move its radio and IT equipment into the old jail building.
“We’ve got to keep property there for that tower in perpetuity because we know we’re not going to get approval to put a tower anywhere else in Uptown,” he said.
The future of the current station building has not been decided.
“There’s decades of people with memories of that place,” Mezulis said. “As town grew, the district grew, but Station 4 is where it all started.”
Photos can be emailed to frontdesk@sedonafire.org, and SFD will also scan printed photos and return the originals.
