"We've outgrown this building and need to build another one not too far down the road," said Chief Ray Goodwin. "That's why we put together the Building Committee and have started working on a new facility."

According to Goodwin, the existing building was constructed in the 1950s by volunteers and more than served its purpose in the intervening six decades. However, dramatic changes in firefighting techniques and equipment have rendered the building unsuitable for long-term usage and impossible to accommodate some apparatus.

"Our apparatus bays are too few in number and inadequate to accommodate new fire equipment," Goodwin said. "We also have no apparatus bay vent system; most of our interior systems are obsolete; and we have a lack of storage space."

The department's newest fire truck is too large to fit into the building, so it spends every day outdoors and exposed to the elements. On the crowded parking area adjacent to the building, a temporary shelter houses two vehicles simply because there is no space indoors for them.

With a dire need for a new station, the Onset Fire District Building Committee began meeting in 2015 and has already developed a preliminary timetable for completion of the project. Chaired by Bill Lockwood, the committee has targeted 2019 as the finish date for a new station once a critical component - its location - is secured.

A Jackson fire truck collided with a black Nissan Sentra.

According to officials, it appears that the fire truck was pulling out of the Shell gas station when it was broadsided by the Nissan Sentra.

The car's airbags deployed and the driver was treated on the scene for a minor leg injury.

The fire truck had minimal damage.

The Nissan has significant damage.

A minvan ran into Engine 54 on Grand River near Biltmore while the fire truck was headed to a suspicious fire just a few blocks away. It had its lights and sirens when it was hit.

The crews involved in the crash were responding to a fire at a home on Rutherford Street. It's one of six abandoned properties, all near Grand River and Greenfield, that investigators believe had been purposely set on fire all between 6 and 8 a.m. Monday.