The Hoover City Council Monday night voted unanimously in favor of spending $1.9 million to buy an office building on Lorna Road to relocate fire department administrative offices, HooverSun.com reported.

The Lorna Professional Building at 3021 Lorna Road is currently owned by Ratliff Partners and located near an entrance to the Monte D’Oro neighborhood and across from Taco Bell, the report said.

A Hoover city official said the three-story building has about 24,000 square feet, with a significant portion of that empty. The city needs to find a new location for the fire department’s administrative offices because the current offices at the Hoover Public Safety Center are needed for expansion of the National Computer Forensics Institute, run by the U.S. Secret Service, according to the report.

The Ann Arbor Fire Department is hoping to gain approval to buy its own ambulance, WEMU.org reported.

At last night’s meeting, the Ann Arbor City Council was expected to vote to reallocate $500,000 American Rescue Plan money: $300,000 toward purchasing an ambulance for the fire department; $200,000 for unspecified downtown improvements, the report said.

In the past, when Huron Valley Ambulance didn’t have any available rigs, the Ann Arbor would have to send out a fire truck to handle a medical emergency, the report said. So, for the last six months, the AAFD has been operating an ambulance provided by Huron Valley Ambulance, according to the report.

The last six months has proved to the department the value of having its own rig, a fire official said.

Charlotte Fire Department will add a REV Vector Electric Fire Truck to its fleet.

The department announced the purchase on Facebook Monday, praising the move toward electric, low-emission fire trucks.

The truck will eventually be housed in the department’s all-electric fire station, slated to open in 2024.

“The new truck will take Charlotte Fire firefighting to an extraordinary new level,” the department said in announcing the purchase.

In November, the East End community voted to pass a fee increase — and Chief Fire Marshal Dustin Free said that this will help them, THV11.com reported.

Free added that without this extra help the fire department wouldn’t have been able to continue responding to all emergencies as quickly as possible.

A massive fire erupted at a Watertown farm Monday. Young’s Longrange Farm on Woodbury Road sustained damage after a 2nd alarm fire broke out at the farm Monday evening. Several neighboring fire departments were called to help Watertown Fire battle the blaze, including Waterbury and Woodbury. An eyewitness told Channel 3 he was driving by the farm when he saw the fire.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFSB-TV CBS 3 Hartford