IL City Shutters Oldest Fire Station over COVID-19 Cuts

PEORIA, IL—Fire Chief Tony Ardis spent years working in the city's Station 4, the facility that was shuttered Thursday due to budget cuts.

It was an old building. It had its issues with plumbing, mold and malfunctioning bathrooms. But for the people who lived and worked there, it was a special place.

"As a young firefighter coming on the job, you learned quickly if you were assigned there you better be squared away," Ardis said, hours after the building was cleared out. "The firefighters who worked there were hard-core dudes. If you were soft-skinned you had two choices: toughen up or bid out."

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Station 4, the oldest in the city, was built in 1952 and now is completely offline, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. In late August, the City Council voted take Engine 4 and Engine 20 offline to plug a budgetary hole.

The moves were controversial because Station 4 is the busiest in the city by call volume and is the main house in South Peoria. Engine 20 is the main fire apparatus in the far northern part of the city.

Ardis, when he told council members why he chose those two, was blunt. He was fearful of firefighters being left without backup and wanted to shrink the city.

And while that might make sense, the decision still stung for many.

Jake Grant works at Station 8 on Hurlblurt Street, but prior to that worked at Station 4 for about 10 years.

"It was the camaraderie," he said, that made the house so special. "It was the place to be for the amount of calls and the fires you would get."

His uncle, Louie Grant, worked there, and he remembers being a kid and going to that old two-story building.

"It is old school. It's only one of two houses within the city that had a pole. It also had a hose tower where you would hang up hoses to dry."

Station 4 was also small and cramped. The workout room was in the bedroom. The bunks were pushed close together. And when two machines – an engine and a truck – were there years ago, it was crowded.

"There was nowhere to hide in that house," He said. "Everyone had to get along pretty well."

Station 4 isn't gone completely. The city is planning on building a new station, which will known as Station 4, off Western Avenue. The new station should be built within the next 12 to 18 months, according to past city records.

When that happens, then Station 8 will close and the machines there will move to Station 4. So the No. 4 will rise again but it's not the same.

"It had that old two-story house look that you see in Detroit or Chicago. It was the kind of house that you wanted to work in as a kid and you were dreaming of being a firefighter," Grant said.

Ardis and Grant both said it was like a badge of honor to work there. The house wasn't pretty or modern, but it was their house. It was where they cut their teeth and learned their jobs.

They'll miss the grime, but the memories will remain.

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