by SC Features Writer Reanna Haase
After Hurricane Ian coursed its rampant path through Sanibel in September 2022, Fire Chief Kevin Barbot said Station 172, which had stood since the early ‘80s, had been claimed by 6 feet of floodwater.
“Everything was flung around. We found the washing machine and fridges in separate rooms. So, everything was destroyed, everything was damaged,” Barbot said. “So, we didn’t have a choice [but] to start over.”
The severity of the damage left the emergency response hub ineligible for repair, laying the groundwork for the Sanibel Fire and Rescue District’s next project– to rebuild a bigger and better version of the Bowman Beach station.
“The station was built in the 1980s; it did not have a lot of features that we needed in a public facility, especially since we were kind of the key point after Ian, where everybody grouped, over there from that side of the island before being evacuated,” Barbot said. “So we want to make sure that we have a good, strong facility that’s going to stay running.”
Barbot said the new facility will be elevated 13 feet, compared to the 7-foot elevation of the previous station. The two-story station will feature the apparatus bay and amenities for residents to take advantage of on the first floor, with the firefighters’ living quarters above.
“We are going to have a lobby which we didn’t have before. We are going to have a medical treatment room so when we have patients that walk up or drive up to our station, we’ll be able to take care of them in a specialized room,” Barbot detailed. “We are going to have ADA-compliant bathrooms on the first floor, in the lobby for the public… We’re also adding a water fountain inside the lobby for our residents that walk or bike or run that trail and want a break, [or if] they want to get out of the sun for a minute.”
The new hub, with an expected move-in date of late July to early August, will also feature newly required features like a specialized bunker gear room and a decontamination room.
“It’s going to be state of the art. It’s going to have all the features that should be in a fire station in 2025,” Barbot said.
Since March 2023, the district has been operating out of a temporary structure, at station 172 on Sanibel Captiva Road, to continue its emergency responses on the west side of the island.
However, the chief said that they are excited to begin operating out of the new and improved station.
The fire chief noted that throughout this process, one of the most important things to the district was that the project was not being funded by local dollars – that they were not taking money away from other individuals on the island that needed support after regional devastation.
“The project is 100% funded straight from state and federal dollars and not local dollars. That was one of the biggest parts,” Barbot said. “We were just devastated by one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, and our people were hurting…[We thought] how can we rebuild our fire district and public safety resiliency without really impacting tax dollars and our residents? That was really the biggest move.”
Barbot noted that there were some delays in construction due to the storms of 2024’s hurricane season but their contractors, Manhattan Construction Group, are very invested in this build and on track to finish the project, at 5171 Sanibel Captiva Rd, before Fall 2025.
“We are so excited to get it up and running,” Barbot said.
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