[2/19/01]

With the purchase of a new fire truck to serve the growing community, the Cleveland Volunteer Fire Department was in dire need of additional space.  So in September of 1999, the department began plans on a new fire station.  After negotiations with the family who owns the land, they decided to donate the property to the fire station to assist with increasing local safety for Cleveland area residents. 

The new station will allow for a more efficient and supportive volunteer fire fighting operation, providing family accommodations for twenty-four hour shift workers.  The facility provides an apartment area for volunteers with wives and children to stay while the fireman is on watch.   The new station is also only one story, so this eliminates having to run up and down stairs like the present building requires.  The coming station will also contain a new air compressor for filling breathing apparatus' with air, along with a new generator.  The building will also provide more office area.

With growing technology and generations of advancement to come, the station is allowing provisions for computers as well as new maintenance measures.  For example, the garage that will hold the fire trucks is equipped with drains underneath each truck so that the vehicles may be washed from within the building.  There will also be an exhaust fan within the garage to eliminate exhaust once the trucks have exited the building. 

With 658 calls in the year 2000 and 30 volunteers, the fire station was in need of more space and organization.  This new building will replace the original one, built in 1961, and plans predict the building's completion within four months.  This all depends on the brick mason, so no definite date has been set.  [4042.com will provide more information as the construction progresses.]
 

Lyndsay Mack
Staff writer

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