"This is a more iconic structure," said Commissioner Carol Deweese. "Originally, we didn't hold this to the same requirements we do our private developers. Now I think you've got something a developer would (do)."

Connaughton brought the final design plan to the commission during its regular meeting after several revisions at the Planning Board and Architectural Review Committee in 2015 and earlier this year. The city has allotted around $3 million for the project to rebuild the fire station, which the chief explained has outlived its expectancy in structure and function.

"When the station was built, door openings of 10 (feet) by 10 (feet) were standard. A few years later, it went to 12 by 12. The current standard now is 14 feet, so our new trucks are barely able to back into the existing building," he explained.

The current station also doesn't have separate locker rooms for men and women or enough space to store all of the updated equipment needed for the department to respond to a variety of emergency situations.

But more than that, the current building is showing its 61 years of age with fractures in the ceiling and degrading pillars outside.

The truck, a 2005 International 440 1,250 gallon pumper, came from the now closed Troublesome Fire Department.

When a fire department closes, all of the equipment goes to the county and the county decides which fire department gets the equipment.

Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander held a meeting with the fire chiefs from around the county to discuss what would be done with the firetruck.

The fire chiefs voted unanimously to give the truck to Krypton.

The truck arrived in Natchez in February, but wasn't transferred to the city at that time because it needed to be entered into the county’s inventory and have some finishing touches put on it.

But the new truck was pushed into service about a week-and-a-half ago when "a couple of city (fire) trucks went down," Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said.

The truck, purchased as a good-faith effort on the county’s part to show its support for the 10-year shared fire-coverage agreement between the city and county volunteer fire departments, is meant to be traded with the city for an older model, which will go to the Liberty Road Volunteer Fire Department, Bradford said.

A woman driving an older Ford Explorer apparently tried to go around the truck as it backed into the fire house garage, leading to the crash.