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More than a decade after the need was identified, money to design a fire station to serve the North Potomac area is available and help for surrounding stations straining to keep up with an increasing number of calls is near.

"In the last two or three years, the call load has increased to a point that it is taxing our capacity," said Asst. Fire Chief Scott Graham of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.

First identified as need in 1999, Travilah Fire Station No. 32, is scheduled to be built near the intersection of Shady Grove and Darnestown roads in response to the steady build up of homes and businesses needing fire and rescue services.

The $16 million stand-alone fire station passed as part of the fiscal 2011-2016 Capital Improvements Program budget approved by the County Council in May and is scheduled to open in 2013, said Blaise DeFazio, a county manger and budget specialist.

Approximately bounded by Muddy Branch and Dufief Mill roads in the west, Interstates 370 and 270 to the north, Glen Road to the south and Falls Road to the east, the station's first-due area will encompass newer communities of Fallsgrove and Traville as well was communities in western Rockville and North Potomac.

"It's had an explosion of growth," said Peter Poggi of North Potomac, where he has lived since 1984. The Travilah Fire Station is needed by the community because the development of homes and businesses in the last 10 years is overcrowding the area.

Poggi last called for an ambulance when he believed his wife was having a stroke a year ago, and found the response time sufficient, but said the fire and rescue services needs to continue to change to fit the growing needs of the community.

"I found their response to be very quick but that doesn't negate the need for another fire station in the area," Poggi said.

‘Like a hole in a doughnut'

The area received 4,176 calls in fiscal 2009 and is projected to receive more than 4,300 calls in fiscal 2010, Graham said. Montgomery County's 35 county-operated stations and five federal stations responded to 106,785 calls in 2009.

Gaithersburg Volunteer Fire Station No. 8 and Kensington Volunteer Fire Station No. 25 receive the highest number of calls, and Hyattstown Volunteer Fire Station No. 9 receives the fewest, with less than 2,000 calls a year, Graham said.

The area to be served by the Travilah Station includes approximately 30,000 people and expected to increase by 5,000 people in five to 10 years, Graham said. Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, the National Lutheran Home, and the Universities at Shady Grove will be included in Travilah's first due area, as well as parts of the recently approved Great Seneca Science Corridor, which is a planned concentration of advanced technology companies, medical centers, research facilities, and academic institutions.

Five surrounding Rockville and Gaithersburg stations have converged to cover the area, but the distance from the stations make it challenging to meet the six-minute response time goal of emergency services, Graham said.

"It's almost like a hole in a doughnut around that area," Graham said.

The average response time to the center of the area by first arriving units from a surrounding station in fiscal 2009 was 8.8 minutes for advanced life support, 9.6 minutes for basic life support, and 7.1 minutes for structural fire incidents, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.

Fire doubles in size every minute, Graham said, and the six-minute goal is based on standards set by the National Fire Protection Association.

The Universities at Shady Grove, attended by 3,800 students, has not noticed a long response time when requesting emergency services, said Paul Dillon, security consultant with the Universities at Shady Grove. In the few instances where the school has needed services, the response time was adequate he said, but having a closer fire station will be even better.

"It's always nice to have a place that's closer," Dillon said.

Rockville Volunteer Fire Departments No. 3 and No. 31 respond to the majority of the area's calls, with 45 percent and 35 percent respectively, in addition to other calls from their own first-due areas.

The Rockville stations average several calls a day to the future Travilah first-due area, and the additional responsibility requires more manpower and fuel, said William Dunn assistant fire chief of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department.

Emergency services dispatch fire and rescue units based on availability, and having an additional fire station will help even out the workload between the existing stations, he said.

"It'll definitely decrease the call volume for our station," Dunn said.

Travilah Fire station will have six full-time positions, staffed around the clock by 27 career firefighters, and have one fire engine and one ambulance, Graham said.

Because the county owns the land, which was home to the interim location for Rockville Fire Station No. 31 about 15 years ago, it was an ideal location for the new station, Graham said. Rockville Fire Station No. 31 is in a building near Darnestown and Quince Orchard roads. There is lot is vacant because the county planned to use the land to build a road, Graham said.

In response to the vital need for more services, an interim Travilah fire station was discussed in 2009 as part of the Public Safety Training Academy in Rockville, less than a mile from the permanent site. The concept of an interim station has been shelved in favor saving money for the permanent location, Graham said.

Interim fire stations are fully-functional stations used while the county pursues a permanent site.

The conceptual planning for Travilah is complete, and the design process will start in the winter, DeFazio said.

The costliest fires of 2009 in the future Travilah Fire Station's first-due area

-Vehicle fire: Sam Eig Highway at Great Seneca Highway, $15,000 damage

-Apartment complex: 9800 block Gable Ridge Terrace, $10,000 damage

-Vehicle fire: 14900 block Shady Grove Road, $8,500 damage

-Vehicle fire: 14000 block Piney Meetinghouse Road, $7,000 damage

-Apartment complex: 9400 block Blackwell Road, $6,000 damage.

Source: Montgomery County Fire and Rescue