The DeLand (FL) Fire Department is holding the grand opening of its Station 81 on Saturday at 9 a.m.

Located at 343 W Howry Ave., the new station is 16,000 square feet and cost $5.5 million. The old Station 81, at 201 W. Howry Ave., was around 9,000 square feet.

Its predecessor will be torn down and made into a public parking lot, officials say.

“Please join us in the grand opening celebration of the new DeLand Fire Department Station 81 and DeLand Police Department Evidence Building!” the department writes on Facebook.

“The event will include remarks from Mayor Apgar, Fire Chief Todd Allen, and Police Chief Jason Umberger. Open house style tours of Station 81 will be available. Light refreshments will be provided.”

Not even Tropical Storm Ida could stop the Somerville (NJ) Fire Department’s octogenarian Engine 5.

Department officials spent four months restoring the vintage apparatus after it was submerged in floodwaters in last September’s storm, reports tapinto.net.

With the hardened residue on the floorboards—amongst other damage, including to the engine and transmission—removed, the 1942 Mack L95S Antique is just about ready to resume its ceremonial duties of parades and firefighter funerals.

The apparatus was trapped inside the East Main Street station along the Peters Brook during the storm’s worst, the report says. A few feet of water made its way into the facility and submerged the truck for a few days until the water subsided.

Days later, the apparatus was transported via flatbed to a dry barn in Warren County. It was then dried out and restored by department members, according to the report. It was driven back to Somerville under its own power, and officials say it’s running better than it ever has.

The apparatus has a 1,000-gallon-per-minute pump, a 300-gallon tank, and a hose bed retrofitted as a casket for firefighter funerals.

The Southwest Polk (OR) Fire District now has three new stations to provide emergency service to its 123 square miles of coverage, and the district has been busy celebrating each’s opening.

Officials opened the first station in Salt Creek on January 5 with a ribbon cutting. The facility at 9105 Rickreall Rd. was christened on Wednesday, and the third’s will be January 19 at the Bridgeport Station, 6040 S. Kings Valley Rd., at 11:30 a.m.

A first attempt to build just one new station in Salt Creek failed in 2008; a second attempt, in 2017, succeeded via a bond measure applying 69 cents tax per $1,000 valuation of district property owners, a report in polkio.com says.

The Salt Creek station’s kitchen, community room, and bathroom were funded by a $230,000 Ford Family Foundation grant. Also, the department was notified on January 4 of a $12,000 Boise Cascade grant for which it was qualified for plywood for the facility’s interior, according to the report.

Officials say the three stations cover about 95% of the district, which is looking to add a fourth facility in Oak Grove to close that gap.

The city of Visalia (CA) plans to build a new fire station downtown to replace its oldest—and largest—station, reports thesungazette.com.

In December, council designated 1.46 acres of city-owned land as the future site of Station 51—currently a parking lot directly west of City Hall off Acequia between Conyer and Stevenson streets, the report says.

The current Station 51 opened in 1970 and houses Engine 51 and Truck 51, each staffed by three personnel; Truck 251, a reserve fire truck; as well as Squad 51, its paramedic unit.

The new facility will be primarily paid for through Measure N, the city’s 2016 half-cent sales tax measure. The initial 10-year plan included $4.4 million for the design and construction of a new—or renovation to the existing—Station 51, according to the report.

Officials say bringing the current station up to code would have likely been more expensive than building new digs. The largest challenge, they say, would have been renovations for wheelchair access. City officials estimate the project’s price tag between $6 million and $15 million.

Also in the works for the Visalia Fire Department is Station 56, on which the city spent $294,000 on a Lovers Lane property in May just south of Tulare Avenue, the report says. The city has been purchasing space from Cal Fire at the Lovers Lane Tulare Unit headquarters since 2006.