Henefer gets its first 24/7 staffed fire station after federal grant

Henefer now has its first fire station staffed around the clock, a shift that gives the east-side town a faster first response to structure fires, medical calls and wildfire threats that once could wait far too long for help.

A federal grant paid to remodel the North Summit Fire District’s South Henefer Road facility, turning it into a full-time professional outpost instead of a station that depended on less reliable coverage. For a community that has never had 24/7 staffing in its history, the change is more than symbolic. It means residents are no longer relying on a patchwork model when seconds matter.

That gap mattered in concrete terms. Summit County presentations in 2022 cited a rural response standard of 14 minutes, while a guest editorial said the district’s single-station setup could push response times over 30 minutes in some areas across roughly 420 square miles. North Summit Fire District officials said they wanted at least six paid firefighters on duty, combining full-time and part-time staff, to meet federal entry standards for a structure fire and the minimum National Fire Protection Association benchmark for rural service.

The new Henefer staffing comes after years of pressure on the district to professionalize. In early 2022, county officials accused volunteer firefighters of boycotting shifts, Park City Fire District temporarily took over fire services in North Summit, and Ben Nielson was hired as the district’s first full-time chief in March 2022. At the time, the district said it was spending about $280,000 on stipends for 26 firefighters, while a proposed hybrid model with six full-time and about 30 part-time firefighters would have cost more than $1 million.

Taxpayers have already been asked to carry more of that burden. The district later approved a property-tax increase of more than 300%, and local reporting said its budget was expected to rise from under $500,000 to nearly $2 million to improve East Side service. County planning materials also showed the district had stations in Coalville, Henefer and Wanship, with 16,050 square feet of building space across those sites.

The payoff is a stronger front line in a county where fire season, medical emergencies and distance can all work against residents. North Summit Fire District’s insurance protection rating improved from 6/6X to 5/5X in March 2024, and the new Henefer station adds another layer of coverage to a system that has spent years trying to catch up with the needs of a sprawling rural area.