Chief Mike O'Dell said the grant, awarded by the Department of Homeland Security through its Assistance to Firefighters Grants program, will be used to buy a new fire truck. The grant is the product of one of two applications submitted this year — the second request for bunker gear has progressed to the peer-review stage, and a decision remains pending. 

"It got to where I was checking my email every Friday to see if we were going to get it," O'Dell said about the grant, which will provide $455,910 toward the purchase of a new truck. "We're pretty excited about this." 

The DHS grant requires a 10 percent match from the city. O'Dell said the combined funding is sufficient to purchase a new fire truck for the department's fleet of fire trucks.

The new truck will include a 1,500-gallon water tank and a light tower, among other things. Liedtke told officials the truck would be similar to one recently purchased from the same company by the Beckville Volunteer Fire Department.

It’s going to take about 379 days to build the truck in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Liedtke said.

City officials already had set aside $400,000 for the new truck in this fiscal year’s budget.

Few details have been released about the fire, but the fire station along with fire equipment was destroyed. 

The design of the building incorporates anticipated vehicle and equipment storage and berthing needs for the future as needs increase.

The proposed 19,000-square-foot building will have 10 bays for equipment storage, a three-story training tower, living quarters for up to eight people, staff training rooms and administrative offices.

GCFPD officials said the building will be financed with revenues the taxing district currently receives and there will not be a need for a special tax referendum.

The new state-of-the art facility designed by BRW Architects is located at 414 Lawrence St. and features 10 apparatus bays, a new fire administration wing, centralized supply management and upgraded living facilities that includes an open floorplan kitchen and living area, a training facility and 17 semi-private dorm rooms. The budget for the project totaled $7 million, and the final cost for the city came under budget at $6,363,500.

The administration wing now houses the Bryan fire marshals, building inspectors and the quartermaster, reducing the number of officials at the overcrowded administration building in Downtown Bryan, as well as centralizing the storage of supplies for the fire department.