Phoenix's oldest continuously operating firehouse is finally getting replaced. The city has selected an architect for a new Fire Station 13 near 50th Street and Thomas Road, a $21.6 million project that will roughly double the station's emergency apparatus capacity once it opens in East Central Phoenix.
The current Station 13, located near 47th Street and Thomas Road, was built in 1958 and holds the distinction of being Phoenix's oldest operating firehouse, according to the Phoenix Fire Department. That aging facility currently houses Engine 13 and Rescue 13, which together run upwards of 20 emergency calls per shift. In a post on X, the City of Phoenix confirmed land for the replacement project was officially acquired in 2024-25, with an architect selected in the 2025-26 cycle and construction expected to begin in 2027-28.
What the New Station Will Look Like
The replacement facility is planned as an 18,000-square-foot, two-story, four-bay building with 16 dormitories, according to Mayor Kate Gallego. That expanded footprint will let the Phoenix Fire Department house two Advanced Life Support engines and two ALS rescue ambulances at the site, doubling the apparatus currently stationed there and helping relieve heavy call volume across the eastern part of the city.
The project falls within Phoenix City Council District 6, represented by Councilmember Kevin Robinson, a former Phoenix Police Department assistant chief who was elected to the council in March 2023, per Ballotpedia. The station's $21,605,820 price tag is part of the broader General Obligation Bond program that Phoenix voters approved in November 2023. That bond package set aside $214 million specifically for community safety projects funding replacements for Fire Stations 7, 13, and 15, along with a new Fire Station 51, according to AZBEX.
The city's own project materials note that a citizen's GO Bond Committee, appointed by City Council on June 1, 2022, spent months gathering community feedback and evaluating proposed projects before concluding its work on November 14, 2022. The committee's recommendations were then presented to and approved by City Council on December 13, 2022, laying the groundwork for the fire station replacement now moving forward.
Old Firehouse Gets New Purpose as Crisis Center
Once the new station is complete, expected in 2028-29, Phoenix's Community Assistance Program is anticipated to move into the existing 1958 building, according to the city's project update. That transition would put licensed case workers and EMTs who respond to non-violent behavioral and mental health crises into a building that has served the neighborhood for nearly seven decades.
The timing lines up with a sharp rise in demand for those services. CAP call volume surged 136% during the first 11 months of 2024 compared to the same period the year before, according to 12 News. Repurposing a legacy firehouse into a dedicated crisis intervention hub is not a one-off idea for Phoenix. The city is running a nearly identical playbook at Fire Station 15 near 45th Avenue and Camelback Road, where Hoodline previously reported on a parallel $21.4 million replacement project that broke ground in late 2025 and will convert the 1979 station into another CAP crisis center. Fire Station 7 at 7th Street and Hatcher Road is undergoing the same dual-replacement approach.
Part of a Larger Public Safety Push
New fire stations funded through the 2023 GO Bond program are being built to modern health standards, including red-spectrum recovery lighting, upgraded gyms, and dedicated decontamination zones intended to reduce firefighter cancer risk, occupational cancer having become the leading cause of death among professional firefighters nationwide. The GO Bond Program also folds in public art funding managed by the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, which commissions pre-qualified artist teams to work alongside project architects to integrate custom artwork into new fire stations, including Station 13.
The new Station 13 is one piece of a much larger infrastructure push. Phoenix's 2025-2030 Capital Improvement Program includes 966 capital projects valued at $11.5 billion, with $387 million in remaining voter-approved 2023 GO bond funds still being deployed across public safety, water, transit, and parks, according to AZBEX. Citywide, the Phoenix Fire Department operates 60 fire stations, nine battalions, 66 engine companies, 15 ladder companies, and 38 rescue ambulances, one of the busiest municipal emergency response workloads in the country, a workload strained further whenever a major incident like the second-alarm fire that gutted a North Phoenix Travelodge in August draws apparatus away from their usual coverage areas.
For now, residents near 50th Street and Thomas Road can expect construction crews to break ground within the next couple of years, with the new Fire Station 13 slated to open its doors by 2028-29. Details on the broader bond program are available through the city's own portal at phoenix.gov/bond.
