Austin holds grand re-opening of downtown fire station
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- One year after firefighters were forced to relocate to temporary locations around downtown, the city is holding a grand re-opening of Fire Station 1 following renovations.
Renovations on the 86-year-old building began in 2020. Construction issues last year forced a temporary closure of the downtown station, which made firefighters and EMS crews work at different stations. They eventually moved into a Travis County building off Guadalupe.
The new renovations allowed space for a second EMS unit to work out of the station. There are now three fire units and two ATCEMS units in the station. At any time, up to 17 people could work out of one of the busiest stations in Austin.
"The safety and privacy of the firefighters has been addressed. It's essentially a completely new station built inside the existing framework of the building," Thayer Smith, Assistant Chief for Austin Fire, said.
The renovations added a new roof, two new kitchens, secure parking lot for AFD and EMS personnel, and new dorm rooms and showers. Smith explained the new dorm set up allows each unit to have their own room to sleep in. When emergency alarms go off, the new set up now will only sound the alerts in the dorms of units that need to be notified.