Community Government Police & Fire

Work begins on Gig Harbor Fire’s training center as Fox Island, Crescent Valley projects near completion

Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One reached a milestone on Tuesday, Oct. 8, when it ceremonially broke ground on construction of a new live-fire training center.

Another milestone is just around the corner. The department expects renovation work on two of its fire stations — Station 53 on Fox Island and Station 57 on Crescent Valley Drive — to wrap up in the coming weeks.

Gig Harbor Fire is paying for those projects with proceeds from an $80 million bond approved by voters in August 2022. The bond also will pay to demolish and rebuild Station 51 on Kimball Drive and for improvements to stations 58 (Bujacich Road) and 59 (Artondale) over its 20-year span.

Fire training facility

Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony, at the training center construction site on Gig Harbor Fire’s Bujacich Road campus, was a long time coming. Far longer than the two years since voters approved the bond measure.

Gig Harbor fire commissioners, fire chiefs and Pease Construction executives ceremonially begin work on the new training center on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2025. Photo by Vince Dice

Assistant Chief John Johnson, who is in charge of the bond projects for Gig Harbor Fire, told assembled dignitaries Tuesday that the district has planned to build a training facility since the early 1990s. District leaders put those plans on hold during the recession that started in late  2007, prioritizing keeping firefighters employed over building a new facility.

When Dennis Doan came onboard as the new fire chief in 2021,  “It was made very clear to me — by the fire commissioners, the past chiefs and the entire fire department — that it was up to me to get this training center across the finish line.” 

Contract and timeline 

Nearly 70% of voters approved the fire bond in 2022. The finish line got closer on Aug. 14, when Gig Harbor fire commissioners approved a $14.1 million contract to Pease Construction of Lakewood to build the fire training center. 

Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One’s Bujacich Road campus will include a training tower and support building in addition to the existing Station 58 and Station 50. Photo by Vince Dice

The contract requires Pease to finish construction by May 2026. The project includes a fire training tower and a support building with classroom space. 

The facility will allow Gig Harbor Fire to conduct live-fire training without traveling outside the district, as it does now. Gig Harbor can also stage its own firefighter academies at the new facility.

“It is a place for us to train, to better ourselves and our response times,” Johnson said. 

Other bond projects 

The first two bond projects should open soon. A renovation of the Fox Island station wraps up this month, with Crescent Valley following in November.

Gig Harbor Fire will solicit bids for a new Station 51 (Kimball Drive) in January. Doan said demolition of the old station should begin in spring 2025, at which point firefighters stationed there will move to Fox Island.

Work on the new Station 51 should be done by the summer or fall of 2027.

Stations 58 and 59 are next in line, but they might not go exactly as planned.  

Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One’s training facility includes a support building, with classrooms, apparatus bays and more. Photo by Vince Dice

Possible changes 

The capital facilities plan that was the foundation for the district’s bond proposal called for renovation of those stations. Doan told fire commissioners in September that after further examination of those stations, it may prove more efficient and cost-effective to demolish and rebuild them.

“We aren’t sure that we can completely remodel and meet our needs,” Doan said at the Sept. 24 fire commissioner meeting. “We’ll still look at that, but from my past experience it doesn’t always produce what you want … the costs escalate.”

Fire commissioners have not yet approved the change. If they do, Gig Harbor Fire projects the new stations would cost a combined $28.2 million, versus the $17.5 million planned for renovations. To stay under the $80 million bond budget, the district would spend less on its logistics building. It’s also expecting to spend less on Station 51 than previously planned.

Station 50 repairs

The fire training center won’t be the only construction happening on Gig Harbor Fire’s Bujacich Road campus. The district also plans to solicit bids for repairs to its headquarters facility, Station 50.

The station was damaged by a fallen tree in November 2023. The district hopes to get those repairs, paid for by insurance claims, wrapped up by early 2025. 

By that point construction on the training facility should be well underway. Doan said the district is already seeing benefits from it.

He said the district recently hired seven “lateral” firefighters from other departments. They picked from among 56 applicants. 

“They all said they loved the departments they worked for,” Doan said. But some of them were discouraged by bond or levy failures in their existing departments. “They said they wanted to come somewhere where the community supports their firefighters.” 

Chief Dennis Doan, left, and Assistant Chief John Johnson with their golden shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony for Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One’s new training facility. Photo by Vince Dice