Wadsworth Fire Station 1 is complete after 14 months of construction.
The decision to construct a new fire station was made due to the lack of space that the previous one had for a full staff.
“The old fire station was sixty years old, it was only designed when it was originally built to not have anybody staffing there 24 hours seven days a week,” said Bob Lindner, Fire Chief.
The number of fire and EMS calls in the city has increased, causing there to be a full-time staff at the station. However, the old station was not equipped for a full-time staff and only had two dorm rooms. Due to this, the new station includes six dorm rooms.
Not only does the new station have more dorm rooms, but the size of the new fire station more than doubles that of the previous one.
“We went from roughly 10,000 square feet to 22,000 square feet,” Lindner said.
The building also has several new features, such as an exhaust system to prevent carcinogens from getting on the skin and equipment of the firefighters.
“My favorite room would probably be the Decon Room,” Lindner said. “Basically, that is the first process of trying to clean up after a fire call, especially all the gear. That’s where we can wash it, get all of our clothing clean, again to get all those carcinogens off of our bodies, basically that’s the health and safety of our members, so that’s the most important room, I feel, within the station.”

Additionally, the station also has more sprinklers to ensure the protection of the crews and equipment.
“This building is fully sprinklered, so not only is it safer for our crews but it is also for the equipment,” Lindner said. “Fire stations do burn so we want to make sure that we protect the equipment because inside here, inside the apparatus bay, there is over 5 million dollars worth of apparatus, so we want to make sure that we protect that.”
People working at the station are also excited about the gym that has been added and the upgraded kitchen.
“I think we would agree that the kitchen and dining room is our favorite since we love to prepare meals together, it’s just good team building,” said Andy Campbell, Wadsworth Firefighter.
The city is still deciding on what to do with the old station, but they will not be selling it.
“We’re not going to sell it at this point and we’re not going to tear it down but it’s just not going to be used as a fire station,” Lindner said.
Currently, the back of the station is being used by the police department for storage, but they are still trying to figure out what to do with the front of it.
“It no longer meets the needs of the fire station but it might meet the needs of another city agency such as the Parks Department, Street Department, water, they may be able to utilize it,” Lindner said.
The new station is located at 343 College Street and there will be a public open house in the spring.
To see the video tour of the station click the link below. Video Courtesy of Paul Taylor’s Media Production Class.