CANNELBURG— A small volunteer fire department saw a need for a new fire house and now they have it built. The Cannelburg Volunteer Fire Department has now opened a new fire station on St. Mary’s Road.

“We started planning this more than five years ago,” said Cannelburg Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Jordan Graber. “About half of our volunteers live on St. Mary’s Road. That means that anytime there is a fire in that area, the responders would have to drive to Cannelburg and get a truck. That didn’t make a lot of sense. For a while, one of our guys parked a fire engine in his garage. As we worked with it, we found that on every run the truck parked on St. Mary’s would beat the one from Cannelburg by 10 minutes.”

Graber says after the test, the department moved the truck back to Cannelburg. Then a fire wiped out a home in the area.

“The house wound up burning to the ground,” he said. “We felt like if we had had a truck closer that would not have happened. At that point we put out some feelers to the community about adding a fire house and they said they wanted it.”

The fire department then went into fundraising mode. They had several events and received enough donations to purchase a plot of land at CR 250 N. and St. Mary’s Road. The land purchase wiped out the money and put the department back into raising money.

“We finally got enough to build. We realized we wouldn’t have enough to build a nice, new full fire station, but we did manage to get enough to build a two-bay building to park two fire trucks in,” said Graber. “We got some good deals on the building, and then more people chipped in and we got enough money to put a newer truck in there.”

Graber said the department spent $140,000 on the building, almost all of it coming from people living in the area.

“The government is totally out of it,” said Graber. “There is not a single cent of tax money that went to this project.”

Graber has nothing but praise for the people in far eastern Daviess County for their support of the project.

“I am pretty thankful about the community we live in,” said Graber. “There is something real special about the people around there. They understand needs and wants. They knew they needed the fire station. In the long run it will pay for itself for them. This is going to save the people who live in that area 30% on their home owner’s insurance.”

Graber says that even when it felt like the project might fall apart the community came through.

“Somebody came in at the last minute and donated the metal to finish the inside of the building and all of the electrical work,” he said. “The Amish-Mennonite community out here really made a difference.”

The fire department isn’t done yet. With a new facility, they are now looking to fill it with upgraded equipment.

“We have a used pumper that we purchased and it will be delivered next week,” said Graber. “The plan is, down the road, in a year or two, we would like to add a new brush truck to respond to brush fires and medical calls. We will equip it with an AED and the equipment we use on medical runs.”

While there are no plans to immediately expand the new fire station, Graber says it was built with the idea of getting bigger in the future.

“We can add on to it if we ever need to,” he said. “We could put a meeting room on there if we

ARKANSAS

TOYNE—West Pulaski Fire Department, Little Rock, pumper-tanker. Kenworth T480 two-door 6×4 cab and chassis; Paccar PX9 360-hp engine; Hale MBP 750-gpm pump; UPF Poly 3,000-gallon water tank; stainless steel body. Sold by Dale Derner, Toyne Direct Sales, Breda, IA. Delivery in September 2026.

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COLORADO

DANKO—Colorado River Fire Protection District, Rifle, quick-attack unit. Ford F-550 cab and chassis; 6.7L 4 OHV Power Stroke 330-hp engine; Waterous BB-4 Kubota 105-gpm@150-psi pump; Super Single tire package; Warn M15-S winch; InPower VCMS multiplex system; ION T-Series LED zone lighting. Sold by Bryan Merritt, Danko Emergency Equipment, Snyder, NE. Delivery in February 2026.

CONNECTICUT

TOYNE—Plymouth Fire Department, Terryville, pumper-tanker. Kenworth T880 two-door 6×4 cab and chassis; Cummins X15 505-hp engine; Hale Qmax XS 1,250-gpm pump; UPF Poly 3,0- gallon water tank; stainless steel body. Sold by C & S Specialty, North Smithfield, RI. Delivery in January 2027.

ILLINOIS

ROSENBAUER—Hinsdale Fire Department 55-foot aerial ladder quint. Commander 6011 cab and chassis; Cummins X12 500-hp engine; Waterous CSUC20 1,750-gpm pump; UPF Poly 500-gallon water tank; Duo-Safety ground ladders; heavy duty aluminum body; hot dipped galvanized frame rails. Sold by Bill Schreiber, Sentinel Emergency Solutions, St. Louis, MO. Delivery in September2026.

PIERCE—Hoffman Estates Fire Department PUC pumper. Velocity cab and chassis; Cummins X10 450-hp engine; Pierce PUC-NG 1,500-gpm pump; UPF Poly 500-gallon water tank; low hosebed design; Duo-Safety ground ladders. Sold by Dan Rudnicki, MacQueen Emergency, Aurora, IL. Delivery in March 2028.

PIERCE—Oak Park Fire Department pumper. Enforcer cab and chassis; Cummins X10 450-hp engine; Hale Qmax1,500-gpm pump; UPF Poly 500-gallon water tank; Command Light KL415D- CH 12-volt, six heads, 7.5-foot light tower; low hosebed design. Sold by John Kenna. MacQueen Emergency, Aurora, IL. Delivery in May 2027. MIDWEST FIRE—Teutopolis Fire Protection District pumper-tanker. Freightliner M2 106 cab and chassis; Cummins L9 360-hp engine; Waterous CX 1,000-gpm PTO pump; APR polypropylene 3,000-gallon water tank; one rear Newton stainless steel 10-inch swivel dump valve with telescoping chute; Zico electric portable tank carrier and 3,000-gallon portable tank; All-Poly construction. Sold by Brett Jensen, Midwest Fire, Luverne, MN. Delivery in December 2026.

INDIANA

ROSENBAUER—Hamilton Township Fire Company, Muncie, pumper-tanker. Warrior 6008 cab and chassis; Cummins X12 500-hp engine; Waterous CXVC22 1,250-gpm pump; UPF Poly 3,000-gallon water tank; aluminum body; hot dipped galvanized frame rails. Sold by Jeff Stigall, Sentinel Em

Melissa Frick
mlive.com
(TNS)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Construction is expected to start this summer on a new $46 million firefighter training facility in Grand Rapids.

The Grand Rapids Fire Department’s new five-story training center will be built at 850 Pannell St. NW and will consolidate training and fire operations from across the city onto a single campus.

The new 97,855-square-foot facility will house the fire department’s live fire training, maintenance shop and emergency operations center, which are all currently spread out on different campuses.

The Grand Rapids City Commission approved a $26 million construction contract with Clark Construction Company on Tuesday, March 25.

Fire Chief Brad Brown said construction crews will tear down the current building at 850 Pannell St. this summer and begin construction. The new facility is expected to be completed and ready for move-in by March 2026.

The fire department is currently renting out a former elementary school on the northeast side of the city as a temporary training space until the building is complete.

RELATED: Firefighters to use recently-closed Grand Rapids elementary school for training

About 35% of the cost of the new facility is getting paid through state and federal grant funding, Brown said. That includes part of a $35 million state grant that will also fund the construction of two new fire stations, including a new Third Ward station that kicked off construction last year.

The U.S. Department of Commerce also announced last fall that the Economic Development Administration (EDA) had awarded a $1.5 million grant to the city of Grand Rapids to help support the training.

RELATED: New Grand Rapids firefighter training facility gets $1.5M federal grant

Want more Grand Rapids-area news? Bookmark the local Grand Rapids news page or sign up for the free “3@3 Grand Rapids” daily newsletter.

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Mar. 28—COLUMBUS GROVE — It took a few years, but the Columbus Grove-Pleasant Township Joint Fire District now has some room to breathe.

The department has moved into its new building at 209 E. Sycamore St. and will be holding an open house to show it off to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 30. The new seven-bay facility was sorely needed, according to Assistant Chief Jeff Vance, as the department has outgrown its previous building on Main Street.

“The fire department had been thinking about this for several years,” he said. “With the size of the apparatus and stuff we have now, it was just tight. We were to the point where we couldn’t even open the doors up on the trucks and do stuff inside the building. We had to pull the trucks outside to get at everything.”

The idea for a new building was brought up several years ago, but after approaching an architectural firm to design one, the department learned that the building the firm submitted would cost more than $3 million to build, an estimate that put the project “on the back burner,” Vance said.

“That’s when Larry Clymer stepped in, a business owner here in town and a lifelong resident who was on the fire department and was on the village council for a while,” he said. “He came to me and said, ‘I would like to help construct a fire station, but I would like to use the guy that I’ve used to build my buildings to do it.'”

Vance told Clymer that the village would not be able to have any part in the process since a public project like this would require an open bidding process. Clymer then agreed to front the cost for the building with the village able to buy the buildng back after completion. As that process developed, the fire department changed into the Columbus Grove-Pleasant Township Joint Fire District, so the district, not the village, owns the building.

This process began before the COVID pandemic, Vance said, with a redesigned building estimated to cost $900,000. However, delays pushed the bond issue needed to procure the funds to buy the building back to the November 2022 ballot. This delay, coupled with supply chain issues and inflation, caused the cost to rise to $1.6 million.

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“So it’s taken a little longer than what we anticipated, for sure, to have it built,” Vance said “But we started in July of 2023 for the construction process. Some of it was supply issues, some of it was labor issues for the time it took to complete, but here we are. It’s done.”

The department currently has five out of its six vehicles housed in the new facility, so there is room for future growth, Vance said. The added room allows for

Jim Sullivan
The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
(TNS)

NEWBURYPORT — Two airlocks, a well-vented garage and a popular fitness room that’s become the envy of the department are just some of the highlights of the new John F. Cutter Jr. Fire Station, according to Newburyport Fire Chief Stephen Bradbury III.

Put into service early last November, the 6,600-square-foot Storey Avenue building has become a welcome addition to the three firefighters stationed there day and night, as well as those at the Fire Department headquarters on Greenleaf Street, Bradbury added.

“I couldn’t be happier with this building,” Bradbury said. “For a substation, they really hit it out of the park — firefighter safety, health and wellness as well as comfort. We fit everything in here that we wanted to.”

The new facility replaced the 51-year-old, 2,258-square-foot West End fire station that no longer met fire codes.

The $9.2 million building is dedicated to a complete separation of work and living environments. A pair of airlocks separate the roughly 2,200-square-foot garage that now houses Engines 1 and 2 from the rest of the station.

Each fire truck, according to Bradbury, is connected to a system of hoses that ventilates the exhaust, not within the building as it did before but outside.

Senior firefighter Bob Morse said that makes all the difference in the world.

“The ceiling here used to be black with soot,” he said. “I remember spending an entire summer, up on scaffolding, painting it white. We used to be breathing in diesel fumes all the time. Now, all the exhaust goes outside.”

The garage bay doors, Bradbury added, can also be opened remotely from Greenleaf Street.

“We’ve already done that a couple of times for mutual aid (from other departments),” he said.

The station’s dispatch office, according to Bradbury, could easily take over for the Greenleaf Street headquarters, if necessary.

“We would have to make some slight adjustments but we could take right over from there,” he said.

But the new fitness room, which includes a treadmill, StairMaster and plenty of free weights, has been the building’s biggest draw, according to Bradbury.

“That’s the star of the show,” he said. “It was designed by one of our dispatchers, Justin Burl who’s a personal trainer.”

Even though Wednesday was his day off, firefighter Casey David (who is stationed out of Greenleaf Street) was working out at the Cutter station.

“This gym is state of the art and it caters to our needs,” he said. “It really helps us get into better shape for what we need to do.”

A decontamination room is also featured in the building, along with a laundry room — separate lockers for turnout gear and street clothes — separate bunk rooms — as well as a trio of showers, (the Greenleaf Street headquarters only has one.)