Oak Ridge North’s original fire station has been relocated and revamped into a larger facility. The renovation project was complete at the end of April, two months ahead of schedule.

Deputy Chief Clint Cooke said construction for the new station started the first week of May 2014, and the building was not expected to be finished until June. However, fire station personnel moved into the building the last week of April.

“There wasn’t any driving event that led to a quicker finish—I would say that it was just good leadership,” Cooke said. “We needed a building, and the quicker we could get moved into it, the better.”

The new station is located at 27900 Robinson Road in Oak Ridge North, and is a bigger and better- equipped facility for firefighters’ needs, Cooke said.

The original fire station, at 27430 Robinson Road, was built in 1975 and was the first fire station in District 8 of Montgomery County and only had about 1,000 square feet of space, Cooke said.

He said when the department worked out of the original station, training sessions were held at the Porter Fire Department in Porter and other surrounding stations due to the lack of space and equipment.

“The best thing about this is that we will now be able to integrate our training into one facility,” Cooke said. “It allows us to do everything here rather than go to different places for training like we had to before.”

The new 30,000-square-foot station features a four-person engine crew with fire staff and administration. It will later be equipped with a full-service fleet maintenance facility, a burn facility, a five-story training tower and a 50-person training and meeting room.

The facility also features a kitchen area, multiple conference and office rooms, a fire pole, a weight room and a fire truck holding area. The new station could also act as a meeting space for the Emergency Services District board of commissioners, the governing body of the fire department, Cooke said.

The new Oak Ridge North Fire Station No. 3 is one of five in District 8 of Montgomery County. It is the only fire station located in Oak Ridge North.