Douglas County to hear request to convert Irvington fire district to suburban status

Douglas County commissioners will hear a request June 2 that could reshape Irvington Fire Protection District No. 8 as homes and development push farther across its service area. The move from rural to suburban status would put the district on a different footing at a time when its call load, and the expectations on it, are rising.

Irvington’s territory runs from 132nd Street to 60th Street and from Fort Street to Dutch Hall Road, a patchwork that includes neighborhoods, commercial districts and farm fields. The district operates two stations, at 9111 Fremont Street and 7111 Star Grass Road, and still relies entirely on volunteers even as the area it serves becomes more suburban in character.

The numbers behind the request are telling. Irvington responded to 1,008 calls for service in 2024, the first time it passed the 1,000-call mark in a single year. Of those calls, 768 were EMS-related and 240 were fire-related, underscoring how often the district is now pulled into medical emergencies as much as fires.

District officials say call volume is expected to keep climbing as neighborhood expansions and new development continue inside the Irvington boundary. That growth is what makes the June 2 hearing so significant for taxpayers and residents alike: suburban status is meant to align a fire district with changing service demands, which can affect staffing expectations, equipment needs and the way a department is structured to answer calls.

Douglas County already has one nearby example. Bennington Fire & Rescue is a suburban fire district that serves about 42 square miles in northwest Douglas County and 6 square miles in southern Washington County. It is a combination department with paid firefighters and volunteers, and its rural-to-suburban conversion was approved in 2020 after both county boards voted in favor during a joint meeting.

For Irvington, the hearing before the Douglas County Board of Commissioners will be the public’s chance to weigh in before the county decides whether the district should make the same transition. The request comes as the district’s service area grows more crowded, more built out and more demanding of the people who still answer every call as volunteers.