The current station is more than 180 years old. It’s outdated and beginning to fall apart. When looking at their options, city officials considered contracting fire services with Augusta or moving the department to neighboring Farmingdale.

"We had seen some dwindling numbers of volunteers and we wanted to consider all options," said Mayor Mark Walker

The donor wanted no part of either plan.

"Strong feeling of independence," Walker said, "having it here would be best served for the citizens of Hallowell."

The sinkhole did cause failure of a water main, which led to over 200,000 gallons of water to leak and cause further erosion.

Crews began the process of excavation Wednesday morning and will further evaluate the situation to determine the repair process.

The structure of the new building was not damaged, however, there was damage to the concrete ramp. The extent of the damage to the ramp and the repair plan for it has not been determined.

The fire at the Gainesville Fire Department occurred one month to the day after flash flooding left a mess inside the station. The department hadn’t fully cleaned up from the flood waters when the fire occurred.

"Everything we saved from the flood was destroyed in the fire," says Gainesville Fire Chief, Ed Doiron, while staring inside one of the burned out fire truck bays.

"We pretty much dodged a bullet [after the flood] by saving the fire trucks,” he says. “Because we were fully functional as a department. As far as this goes, I’m still-- it hasn't sunk in yet. I'm sure it will at some point but right now it's just a numbing effect."

Doiron, who lives only a few blocks away from the station, says when received word of the fire and headed for the department he could already see the glow from the flames.