Residents of the Morningside neighborhood are campaigning for the city of Edina to increase funding for the fire department, specifically to hire additional firefighters and build a third fire station in the northeastern quadrant of the city. This comes after Edina’s emergency response times being consistently higher than nationally recommended levels, with particularly long times in the Morningside neighborhood.

In over 90% of reported incidents since 2021, the average fire department response time in Edina has exceeded 12 minutes, and the average response time in Morningside has exceeded 15 minutes. The recommended response time is eight minutes and 12 seconds.

Emily Aviles, a Morningside Neighborhood Association Member and petitioner for a third fire station in Edina, discovered this issue when she was assisting a late elderly neighbor who suffered an emergency cardiac event last May.

“It had been at least 20 minutes before the ambulance had arrived. With my medical background, I know that every second counts when you’re in an emergency, especially a cardiac emergency,” Aviles said. “So that’s when I just started reaching out to try to understand better if this was just one rare situation or if this was a trend that was being seen in Edina.”

The location of Edina’s fire stations can be partially attributed to the slow response, since Fire Station #1 is located in the northwest quadrant and Fire Station #2 is located in the southeast quadrant. Morningside’s closest fire station is approximately four miles away. In fact, a study commissioned by the city in 2019 had claimed that Edina’s response times in its northeast quadrant warranted a third fire station.

Andrew Slama, the Edina Fire Chief, said the third fire station was in its “planning and implementation phase.”

“We’re starting to look at our station three, identifying a site, and then building and constructing a site,” Slama said. “That will also need to have staff associated with it to ensure that we have coverage for fire and ambulance response.”

Morningside residents have proposed the vacant land near the Vernon Avenue & Highway 100 Interchange project as the site for a potential fire station.

Location is not the only concern residents have raised in favor of the fire department; the lack of funding and understaffing are also issues. With current staffing, the Edina Fire Department can respond to three incidents at a time. According to Slama, scenarios where four or more incidents overlap occur “hundreds of times each year.”

“[Understaffing is] a big deal for everybody in Edina outside of this geographic location issue,” Alicia Gibson, a member of the Morningside Neighborhood Association Steering Committee, said.

Edina’s firefighters also serve as paramedics, meaning they act as first responders for medical incidents as well as fires.

In the city’s 2026 Budget and Tax Levy page, the city outlined fire station three and personnel expansion as top priorities, as well as a proposed tax levy of 11.03%. Slama proposed hiring 12 additional firefighters. In its final budget, the city approved the hiring of six new firefighters and reduced the new tax levy to 8.96%.

Community members state that the fire department is essential to the public, and the council should not consider cutting its funding.

“It feels like only needs are under discussion for cutting,” Gibson said at the City Council’s public hearing, where the budget was discussed.

“I really feel like we’ve got to get the focus back on things that are really core to community strength and security,” Julie Risser, a City Council member who advocated for a compromise of hiring nine additional firefighters instead of six, said.

City Council member Carolyn Jackson said that she hopes that the city “reviews mid-year the impact of hiring new firefighters.”

Risser claims the city’s use of tax increment financing, a method that allows additional property taxes to fund projects on the property instead of going to the municipal fund, is impacting its ability to allocate its budgets to public safety projects such as its fire department.

The Morningside Neighborhood Association is preparing to discuss future fire department plans with Slama in July.

“It’s a stressful issue, and it is unresolved, but one of the positive things that came from it is the neighbors,” Gibson said. “We were able to work together and organize around something that benefits all of us, and that’s a positive outcome that I hadn’t even been thinking about.”

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Edina Fire Stations #1 and #2 were located in the Southwest quadrant. Zephyrus deeply regrets this error.

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on April 9, 2026