St. Cloud Breaks Ground on $43.5 Million Fire Station 6 and Regional Training Center

(KNSI) – Dirt is officially moving on St. Cloud’s sixth fire station.

The city held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday afternoon at 4850 33rd Street South for the $43.5 million station and regional training center, approved by voters in 2024 as part of the Public Safety Referendum. Fire Chief Matt Love told KNSI News the years of planning meetings and the referendum campaign made Monday’s ceremony that much sweeter. “A fire station is certainly more than brick and mortar. It’s this promise to the community of, we’re gonna be ready, and we’re gonna be there when you need us.”

The station will serve the fast-growing southwest side of the city, near Tech High School, where response times now run eight to 12 minutes. The national standard is six. Love expects those times to be cut in half. He also says he was surprised by what the numbers showed for the rest of St. Cloud. “You look at the modeling, and it’s astonishing how this station changes response times on the other side of the city. So it’s definitely a full city impact.”

The reason is the new engine company. When a big call comes in on the southwest side, crews come from the new station instead, so firefighters on the other side of St. Cloud stay in their own districts.

The other half of the project is a five-story live-fire training tower, something Love says no one else in the area has. The tower will mimic everything from houses to businesses to high-rises, and crews will train with real fire and real smoke. Right now, firefighters travel to the Twin Cities for that, which pulls them out of the community for the day. “Quite honestly, we believe it’ll serve the region, because the region does not have a live fire training facility.”

Demand keeps climbing. The department is projecting about 11,000 calls this year, roughly double the volume of 20 years ago. Love points to population growth, more people recreating outdoors and the number of people who pass through St. Cloud for work and business.

The referendum passed with 61% of the vote. Love expects crews to be operating out of Station 6 in about 14 months.

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