A busy Wichita bridge is about to close, which will force an estimated 16,000 drivers per day to find another route and a fire department to build a makeshift station, KSN.com reported.

The Amidon bridge improvement project is changing where fire crews do business in the area, the report said.

Taking a new approach, the Wichita Fire Department is constructing a makeshift station (Fire Station 23) near the corner of 13th and West in the parking lot of Dillons, according to the report.

For the next 18 months, the grocery store’s parking lot will be the temporary fire station’s home. The station is expected to open on October 3, the report said.

A fire official said it is a unique situation for the department, as the closure of the Amidon bridge meant response times would have doubled without a backup plan, the report said.

The interior of the Alton Fire Department smelled like a mix of fresh paint and freshly grilled hamburgers on August 8 as the community gathered for an open house in the new addition of the building, NWestIowa.com reported Thursday.

The new addition at 905 Third Avenue has brought the building to four times the original size and includes a spacious garage for some of the department’s emergency vehicles, a locker room, a scrub room, a kitchen and a meeting room.

The meeting room is mostly intended for training sessions for Alton firefighters or emergency management services volunteers, the report said.

The station also has locker rooms for the firefighters to store their gear. Before, their uniforms and gear were hung on the wall a few feet from the vehicles. Firefighters would bump into each other and stumble over hoses left out to dry when getting ready and narrowly avoid getting backed into by a truck when taking off their gear, according to the report.

The original part of the Alton Fire Station, which has been standing 1978, is still being used to store some of the emergency vehicles and other supplies. The addition was spurred by the growing size of new emergency vehicle models, which took up more space in the station, the report said.

The final budget for the addition came in at around $2.1 million.

Watertown Town Council approved an appropriation of $1.5 million in its September 6 meeting to replace the town’s Ladder 2 fire truck and related equipment, TownTimesNews.com reported.

The council also approved an appropriation of $5 million for various road improvements and related work, the report said.

After a buyer for a new ladder truck suddenly backed out, Escambia County (FL) Fire Rescue can buy an aerial to supplement one that’s been out of service for about 600 days, according to a report published by NorthEscambia.com.

According to the report, the department’s Ladder 5, a refurbished 1991 75-foot aerial, has been challenging to put on the road, but parts have been obtained and the plan is to put the truck back in service. The report said a second brand new aerial also became available and the department had considered purchasing it as well, but the county commissioners voted not to make the second purchase.

The new aerial, a 2023 E-ONE HR100 aerial ladder will cost $1,251,724.30 and should be delivered in November or December of next year, according to the report.

Some commissioners had hoped to purchase a second truck that became available, a platform aerial for $1.5 million to eventually replace the 1991 model, but the majority of the commissioners decided not to, according to the report.