On November 7, 1998, the citizens of Portland authorized the sale of $53.8 million in general obligation bonds for improvements to existing fire & rescue stations and construction of new stations. The full implementation of the Facility Improvement Program has taken over 10 years and has been managed by Portland Fire & Rescue. The local community—citizens, Neighborhood Associations, businesses and other interested groups— has played an important role in advising the City about siting and designing new stations, and renovating existing stations.

The goals of the Facility Improvement Program include:

• Seismically upgrading fire & rescue stations to allow the firefighters and their equipment to effectively respond to an earthquake in the metropolitan area.
• Re-locating and build new stations to meet the goal of a four-minute response time to emergency incidents.
• Renovating existing stations and design new stations to reflect the changing mission of Portland Fire & Rescue.  
• Assuring that all stations comply with new requirements for ADA accessibility and female firefighter accommodations.