Kearsley Construction Inc., of Spokane has broken ground on a Sprague, Wash., emergency response center that will be home to a volunteer fire department, and will replace a smaller, older facility, says project architect Ryan Zane, of Spokane-based Bernardo Wills Architects.

The construction cost is estimated to be about $1.8 million, Zane says. Construction on the facility began Oct. 22, and is planned to be completed by mid-July.

Scott Clemenson, fire chief for Lincoln County Fire District 1, says the total project cost will come in around $2.5 million, counting other expenses.

Clemenson says the department has 24 volunteers with an emergency response fleet of one structural fire truck, nine trucks specifically for brush fires, and two ambulances.

The emergency response center will have about 11,800 square feet of floor space, roughly quadrupling the less than 3,000 square feet of space the district has in its current fire station.

"The space they have now is tiny," Zane says. "They have to fold up the mirrors to get the trucks through the doors."

The new facility will include three double deep bays, giving it the space to accommodate up to six fire trucks. The space will also include bunk rooms, a kitchen, office space, and an emergency operations center, which Clemenson says will be used as an information center in the event of a large disaster.

Zane says the old building wasn't heated or insulated and when calls came in, trucks had to be filled at the nearby lake before responding to the call. The new facility will be heated and insulated, bringing water capabilities to the emergency response center, Zane says, an improvement that he expects will shorten emergency response times.

Funding for the project comes through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a community development block grant, and Washington State's community capital facility.

Robert Pace is the principal architect on the project.

Sprague is located about 45 miles southwest of Spokane, off Interstate 90 in Lincoln County.