In 2017, budget challenges led to the closing of a number of Milwaukee Fire Department stations and the decommissioning of multiple engines and other units.

Among those changes were the closings of six stations, the decommissioning of four engine companies (but the recommissioning of three others) and four ladder truck companies, and a host of relocations.

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Thanks to a unique arrangement with Wauwatosa (which you can read about here) one of the closed stations, Station 28 on 424 N. 30th St., reopened in 2023.

Now, thanks to the 2025 City of Milwaukee budget – and as MFD celebrates its 150th anniversary – Station 28 is getting a new medical unit – MED 8 – and Station 31, 2400 S. 8th St., is reopening after more than seven years to house the recommissioned Engine 31 and MED 15.

“The new MED 8 is an additional company to meet the extreme and increasing demand of the paramedic run call volume experienced in that first-in neighborhood,” an MFD statement notes.

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Of course, the recommissioning of Engine 31 and reopening of its quarters is great news for the South Side as it will surely cut response times to calls in the area.

“As fire chief and as a lifelong Milwaukee resident, the recommissioning of shuttered fire stations and the proper staffing of a busy urban fire department are the hallmarks of a system regaining health and solid direction,” says Chief Aaron Lipski. “I am proud to be a part of it.”

When I visit the newly reopened station, Engine 31 driver Brandon Hart tells me the firefighters have just returned from their first fire call since being reactivated a few days earlier.

The jar collecting dollars for each day without a fire call sits just-emptied and the apparatus bay smells of smoke.

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That blaze was just around the corner.

But the reopening is also significant from a historical standpoint as the red brick firehouse was the last of the many designed by fireman-turned-architect Sebastian Brand to be constructed.

The single-bay, two story firehouse, with Neoclassical elements, was built in 1912, the same year as Station 30, 2903 N. Teutonia Ave., to which it is quite similar, although the latter has two equipment bays and lacks Station 31’s second-story arches.

(Station 30, incidentally, reopened in 2022 after being closed for emergency repairs to fix a failing apparatus floor.)

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Brand retired just a few years after the construction of these facilities. (You can read here about the first non-Brand firehouse, the 1915 fireboat station in the Third Ward, designed by Charles Malig, who would go on to design the bungalow firehouses.)

Brand, a German immigrant firefighter and mason, designed nearly every old firehouse you can think of in Milwaukee, despite having no formal architecture training and despite receiving no extra pay for his design work, undertaken for a time while he was still fighting fires.

You can read an in-depth story about Brand here.

The City of Milwaukee purchased two lots in the Lincoln Heights subdivision on Jan. 15, 1908 for $3,000, suggesting this site on the corner of 8th and Hayes was considered suitable for a firehouse for a few years.

This final Brand design was constructed at a cost of $15,834.98, according to retired firefighter Jim Ley’s invaluable book, “10-19 Return to Quarters: A History of Milwaukee’s Fire Stations,” which provided some of the information here.

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The station officially opened on March 1, 1912, when a crew of 10 firefighters under the command of Captain Matt Wagner manned the new Engine 31, which ran an 1893 American steamer engine, drawn by horses, of course.

Despite getting a new steamer three years later, the world was changing and by 1926, the building had to be altered to accommodate motorized fire trucks, the first of which to serve in this building being a brand new engine built at the Milwaukee Fire Department’s own shop.

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The space was also renovated at this time in anticipation of the arrival from Station 12 in 1928 of District Chief 4’s office, which remained at the station until 1950.

In the meantime, however, the station also became quarters for Truck 14, which briefly shared the space from when it was reorganized in 1927 until 1929, when it was relocated to Engine 23.

Station 31 – like Station 30 – was built with a Second Empire-style hose tower, but as is the case with pretty much all old firehouse towers, both have long since been removed. Engine 31’s came down as part of a big 1937 WPA-staffed remodeling project and Engine 30’s likely following 12 years later.

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Sadly, the arched bay opening was also removed and squared-off during that 1937 work, which also removed one of the arched entrances.

In 1954, Engine 31 went to Engine 12 and Squad 2 (which has been in the building since 1952) to Engine 26 while another remodeling took place, including an office addition to the south on 8th Street and an addition at the back for a kitchen.

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When Engine 31 returned in January 1955, it was joined by Squad 5 (instead of Squad 2), which had previously been quartered at Engine 7.

According to Ley, Civil Defense No. 2 also used the building during two stints: 1955-63, 1965-78.

But Engine 31’s presence here was a constant over the decades.

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“I served there twice, as a firefighter and later as an officer,” recalls retired firefighter and author Wayne Mutza. “Our 1949 Mack pumper was the department’s last pumper in service without a water tank, so even smaller blazes required hose layouts and hydrant hookups.

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“That pumper served as Engine 31 from 1949 to 1979. I worked with that engine again when it was assigned to the Fire Academy.”

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Engine 31 was there to fight the five-alarm Pereles Brothers plastic factory fire around the corner on 7th Street in 1956 and it was there to battle another five-alarm blaze in 1979 at an A&P grocery store on 13th Street.

It was there in 1980 when, while on the presidential campaign trail, Ronald Reagan spoke in front of the building, and it was there in 2002 when the building got yet another remodeling that included new paint, a new kitchen, updated mechanicals and an innovation: individual sleeping rooms.

And, it was there in 2012 to celebrate its centennial with a commemoration hosted by Capt. Chris Schutte and Engine 31’s members.

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However, just five years later, on Dec. 18, 2017, Engine 31 was decommissioned by those budget cuts I mentioned earlier and the station was closed.

But, says Capt. Todd Christensen, the building has not been empty. Instead, it was used to house the offices and vehicles of the department’s Mobile Integrated Health program in partnership with UWM’s School of Nursing and an opioid response initiative.

The building officially reopened as Station 31 at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7 and the first call – a medical run – came at 10 a.m.

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A lot of work went into preparing for that day.

First, a team needed to be assembled to staff the units which have six people per shift.

“Because it was basically forming from scratch,” Christensen says, “they put an email out that people could (express interest) and then the battalion chiefs would get together and say, ‘OK, this is the list of people that have volunteered to come and we'll build a team from that.”

Those selected continued working at their previous assignments until Sunday, Jan. 5.

Next, the apparatus floor needed to be dealt with. You’ll recall that the Teutonia station built just before this one recently had a failing floor.

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“We knew we were going to be assigned here two months ago, but we weren't able to get in and start working,” Christensen notes, “because of the weight of the rig and the age of the firehouse, cracks in the floor would get water in them and it would deteriorate the floor from the inside out.”

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So, the floor had to be repaired.

And then there was the engine. The current Engine 31 was formerly Engine 28. With money received from the Republican National Convention, MFD was able to purchase three brand new engines, Christensen says.

“Those rigs became Engine 26, Engine 23 and Engine 30, and then Engine 28 got what was like a 3-year-old Engine 23 and we got Engine 28,” he explains. “A year from now this could look really different because these are (vehicles) that are on the bigger side and we might end up getting something newer, which is typically now getting a little smaller. Kind of like cell phones, they used to keep getting bigger and bigger and now they’re getting smaller and smaller.”

Rig secured, it needed to be stocked with hoses, tools and other equipment.

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“The biggest part that my team was tasked with was every piece of equipment on this fire engine was not on the fire engine,” Christensen says. “So they dropped off pallets and pallets and pallets of the equipment that would be on the engine.”

The firefighters came in over the course of about six weeks – in addition to their regular shifts at their other assignments – to do the work of getting everything prepped, tested and loaded.

“Some of us were able to do more than others, but we got folks that were in here working on their off times upward to like 50 total hours,” the captain says. “It was a big project and certainly a big group effort.”

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Christensen walks me around the station and it looks a lot like a house that’s just been moved into. There’s not much on the walls – other than a pair of great hand-painted signs that the firefighters union saved when the station closed in 2017 and then returned recently – and for now there’s only a hodgepodge of donated furniture in the lounge, a donated fridge for the kitchen.

In the basement they built cubbies for turnout gear.

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Upstairs – which is reached by a classic vintage Brand staircase with a heavy handrail that makes an interesting twist at the top – in what may have originally been the dormitory they plan to put in a weight room. At the moment, however, it’s pretty much empty.

Adjacent to that is a corridor with the individual sleeping rooms for firefighters on duty.

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“This house is the only one that I am aware of that doesn't actually have a dormitory,” Christensen says. “It was the first one and I’m going to say the only one (with sleeping rooms).”

The station does still have a gleaming fire pole, but it’s behind a door on the upper floor suggesting it won’t likely see a lot of action. Behind another door on the opposite side of the space, you can peek into the old hose-drying tower.

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While the Engine 31 and MED 15 folks will surely, over time, make this place more homey and comfortable, just having them here, regardless of the decor is what’s important for those living in the neighborhood.

“The importance of a strong fire suppression and emergency medical response capacity in this neighborhood was never more clear than in the early morning hours of Sunday, April 14, 2024,” says Chief Lipski. “An advanced fire in a vacant home across the street and down the block from the then-vacant Fire Station 31 spread to occupied homes on either side, trapping residents in the home to the south.  

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“Despite valiant rescue attempts, one resident perished and a firefighter became trapped, resulting in severe burns and an extended recovery time. Had extreme rescue attempts by fellow firefighters and his own training not been at the cutting edge, this firefighter would, too, have perished. There was no doubt that the delay in the response times contributed to the fire growth, the spread between buildings and the entrapments.”

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While the first few days were quiet ones at Station 31, Christensen – who grew up in this area and now lives just about 10 minutes away – doesn’t expect it to stay that way.

“Typically, in houses at this level of business, the after-midnight runs are the bread and butter,” he says. “I would say we have not experienced our worst days (yet).”