Crossville Fire Chief Chris South said this week’s relocation of Fire Station Two to a more centralized location will improve emergency response times for the northern part of the community.
The new facility is located at 68 Cotton Patch Drive, situated in the heart of the industrial district between Interstate Drive and Genesis Road. The department moved operations to the 10,000-square-foot building this week from the previous station on Industrial Boulevard.
“The fire station was actually, we’re moving a fire station,” South said. “This fire station is being relocated from 520 Industrial Boulevard, which was by the ballpark in Crossville. That fire station was built a little over 30 years ago and had began to deteriorate and was seeing lots of signs of age. And City Council and City Management made the wonderful vision to build a new fire station to more centralize the response district for fire station two.”
South said the north end of the community has experienced a significant increase in both population and business. South said the new site is positioned on the bypass to allow crews to reach emergencies more effectively and efficiently.
“They just opened up the Interstate Drive area with a new expansion of it,” South said. “And it’s part of the project that will also get us from a northwest connector. So it’ll allow us to respond not only from here, but across to the area of the west end of our community a little more efficiently from here as well.”
South said the three-bay facility features a split design that separates the residential living quarters from the business and training areas. South said the layout includes a workout facility and dedicated storage for firefighter turnouts and lockers.
“I think the living conditions for our firefighters is just unbelievably better and we’re so thankful for that from the council and our mayor and city manager. They’ve done a great job getting us where we need to be,” South said. “In the design of our fire station, we were able to, we did a split design with putting the, per se residential part of our house where the firefighters sleep and they have a workout facility and they have their turnouts in their locker storage.”
South said the strategic placement of the station is intended to serve the projected growth of the area for the next 20 years. South said the department is currently finalizing the move and organizing the new space after firefighters spent their first night in the building this week.
“One thing that I’ve spent my career doing is trying to prepare for the future. And I am actually approaching the end of my career in a few short years and have worked diligently over the years to always looking way ahead and way beyond even my opportunity to be fire chief here and what will it serve the community,” South said. “And this was the place that we felt would best serve the growth and the projected growth that we’re having in our area.”
South said the department plans to host an open house for the public during the first week of May.