CENTERVILLE, Ga. — Within a few weeks, the Centerville Fire Department will have a new place to call home. Surrounding cities like Warner Robins and Perry have several stations -- but Centerville has just one. If you're driving near Houston Lake Boulevard and Miller Drive, you'll see the new Centerville fire station right next door to the current station.
Willie Robinson has lived in Centerville for 15 years -- he says this will be a great benefit.
“I just love the design and that it is a modernized fire station,” he said.
“Really, it's a direct location to the main street there, and the enter and exit ways is going to be better for the crews and trucks responding out to emergency.”
Centerville Fire Chief Jason Jones says the new space will allow them to hire more staff and purchase a new fire truck. They've been in the current spot since 2003.
“The current station we're in now, we outgrew it pretty much the day we moved in. We moved in and when we had two people per shift and then I want to say a year after that, we grew to four people per shift,” said Jones.
The space will have about 15,000 more square feet and an additional floor. Some new features include a training room and a backup generator.
“We'll have a separate bunker gear room and we'll have a new exhaust system for our trucks and that's going to help keep the firefighters safer from the contaminants that the exhaust puts out, plus the contaminants that we get on our gear,” said Jones.
Jones says the average response time is about 5 minutes -- but the new location will allow them to get to a scene even quicker.
Robinson says he looks forward to the grand opening.
“The staff itself is very professional and well-trained, that I've observed, and it's going to actually continue to serve this community, Centerville community, excellent. Excellent service,” said Robinson.
Jones says they will continue to use the old building to store equipment. He says they hope to move into the new location next month.