Edward and Susan Perry, both 61, died in a house fire Aug. 10, in southwest Wichita. The fire department took nearly seven minutes to arrive, well past the national four-minute standard.

The Perrys lived at 9806 W. Savannah, in a neighborhood the city flagged for inadequate fire protection in a 1999 study. As of 2026, the problem persists: 37% of Wichita's geographical area still cannot be reached by firefighters within four minutes, according to the Wichita Eagle.

City records show Engine 17, housed at Station 17 on Maple Road more than two miles north, was the first unit on scene. The city initially claimed a response time of 5 minutes 5 seconds but later provided records showing the actual arrival was between 6 minutes 56 seconds and 7 minutes 34 seconds after the 911 call came in at 9:39 p.m.

Ten days after the fire, on Aug. 20, city officials broke ground on Fire Station 23 at the northwest corner of Pawnee and Maize, less than a half-mile from the Perry home. It is Wichita's first new fire station since 2009.

The $5.25 million station will house a four-person engine company across all three shifts, requiring 14 additional firefighters, according to KWCH. It is not expected to open until late 2027.

Union: 'Warnings went unheeded'

Ted Bush, president of Wichita Firefighters IAFF Local 135, said in an Aug. 21 statement that the union has raised alarms about coverage gaps for years.

"We can never guarantee outcomes, but we know with certainty that closer stations give trapped residents the best possible chance of rescue and lowers firefighter injury rates," Bush said in the statement.

Bush called the groundbreaking an important step but said it comes on the heels of a heartbreaking double-fatality fire. In the same statement, he warned that southwest Wichita is not an isolated case and that similar response-time problems persist citywide. A 2022 internal Wichita Fire Department study found the city needs 11 new fire stations. The city initially refused to release the report through an open records request; the Eagle published it earlier this year.

Yet only Station 23 and one additional station in an undetermined location are budgeted over the next decade, according to the city's proposed Capital Improvement Plan.

City response

City spokesperson Megan Lovely said in an Aug. 21 statement that survivability in house fires depends on numerous factors and that there is no way to know whether the victims would have survived under different circumstances. She said the department continues to evaluate station locations, staffing and response data.

District 4 council member Dalton Glasscock, who represents the area, spoke at the Aug. 20 groundbreaking and said minutes, proximity and preparation matter when a family is in danger. He called the fatal fire a reminder of why the station is needed, according to KSN.

Wichita voters defeated a sales tax proposal in March 2026 that would have boosted funding for fire stations and other initiatives. Plans call for two more new stations and reconstruction of existing ones, but no timeline or locations have been confirmed beyond Station 23.

The cause of the Aug. 10 fire remains under investigation.