Lexington officially opened its first new fire station in more than a decade, reports Lexington Herald Leader.

The 15,338-square foot, two-story station will help the fire department improve response times.

Fire station 24 is the first new station built since 2006 when Fire Station 22 was built in Veterans Park. But it’s been in the works for nearly a decade as the city’s growth demanded an additional fire station on the northwest side of Lexington.

A 71-year-old fire truck has returned to town of Westville, N.S., reports CBC.

The truck is a 1948 GMC American-LaFrance. It carries about 730 metres of hose and 150 gallons of water.

The truck was eventually retired and sold from buyer to buyer, until it ended up in an Ontario barn.

 

Sugar Hill-Montford Cove Fire Department will open a second fire station, reports The McDowell News.

Sugar Hill Fire Chief Joe Washburn said that, in 2018, 65% of the call volume would have come out of Station 2 if it had been built.

Sugar Hill-Montford Cove has 31 volunteers on call and eight part-time paid personnel. One of those eight will split their duties between the two departments from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

A mechanism on a large tow truck malfunctioned while transporting a Miller Hose Fire Company truck, reports The Buffalo News.

The fire truck veered off the road and went across two lawns. Volunteers from Miller Hose Fire Company in Newfane were on the scene to help assess the damage.

Fire officials said the fire truck had taken part in a field day in Wilson and was having ignition trouble. 

By Alan M. Petrillo

The design/build team of SMP Design and Turner Construction had just completed a station for the Delhi (OH) Fire Department that got them a lot of accolades in the press when they learned of the Madison Township (OH) Fire Department seeking RFQs to build a new station that would be the third for the fire district. SMP Design got through the RFQ stage, moved on to the RFP process, and ultimately got to interview with the department to present a project proposal.

SMP Design and Turner Construction designed and built this two-bay station for Madison Township (OH) Fire Department. (Photos courtesy of SMP Design.)

"We work in a program called Sketch Art for 3D modeling to create a very good artistic rendering of a project," says Kevin Spector, SMP Design's chief creative officer. "We used that program to show the department the entire project where we do a three-dimensional helicopter flyover of the outside to spin and twist around the building, and even pull the roof off the rendering to show all the spaces inside the building." Spector says the presentation earned SMP Design the contract along with Turner Construction on a design/build project basis.

The rear view of Madison Township's new Station 183.

Jeff Fasone, chief of Madison Township Fire, says the department was founded 70 years ago with three stations, one with paid and volunteer firefighters, and the other two all-volunteer. "In 1985, we transitioned from volunteer to all paid and consolidated two stations into a new station 182," he says. "Eventually, when the levy passed to construct a full-size station 183 for nine firefighters and a new medic truck, we hired SMP Design and Turner Construction to do the job."

The new station is a one-story structure of 12,500 square feet, with two 80-foot-long, double-deep, drive-through apparatus bays and support spaces on a side wall holding SCBA storage, a decon room, turnout gear storage room, a shop, and a general storage room. A mezzanine contains all of the building's mechanical equipment." The support spaces form a buffer between the apparatus bays and the living and administrative spaces," Spector says. The public spaces are limited to the lobby, and there is a report room adjacent to the lobby, along with two offices, and a conference room.

The entryway at Madison Township's new station.

The station's report room has view lines to the street, apron and front lobby.

In the living area, SMP designed a open space dorm room with eight sleeping cubicles separated by seven-foot high walls that al