OAKLAND, Maine — For nearly 70 years the Oakland Fire Department's station was a small building that couldn't even fit all the trucks. Gear and training equipment were scattered, and the kitchen sink was doubled as the chemical waste dump.
After years of community support, the town made a change. The department moved into its new building, right next door.
“It was something necessary to have done to improve our efficiencies to improve our safety of our firefighters and to give the town something they can be proud of," Fire Cheif David Coughlin said.
The new building has all the bells, whistles, and plenty of room for all the ladders. All the department's trucks fit in this space with room for more boats or other emergency vehicles.
“Sometimes you get a little lost in here, it’s so much bigger than the other building. You could fit the entire other building in this bay which is pretty crazy to think about," Per Diem firefighter Jesse Morkeski said.
The new space also fits a new conference room, updated living quarters, a separate room for gear, and meeting spaces for training purposes.
“We can do confined space training, we can do hose training, we can do search and rescue training all from inside the building," Coughlin said.
One of the more important upgrades, a new ventilation system that pumps diesel fumes from the trucks outside the building.
“It’s huge to get the deiseal fumes out of the station and away from us," Morkeski added.
The new station was part two of a three-part building upgrade plan for the town. First, the police station, now the fire station, next to the town office. The building upgrades helping to serve as a sense of pride for the community.
“Everybody’s been involved in the process all the way through, it’s something a lot of people can take pride in," Coughlin said.
The public open house of the new station will be on April 25. The old station is scheduled to be torn down in the next few days.