The long wait for a new Salisbury Fire Hall is over.
Firefighters moved into their new Main Street location last week.
The planning began for this fire hall pre-COVID in 2019.
It is 12,460 square feet, and includes several new features that the previous hall on Douglas Street didn’t have.
“It gives us a lot more room to do more training. It takes a lot of the obstacles out of our way and allows us to respond quicker,” Salisbury Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Bradley MacLeod told our newsroom.
“We now have drive-through bay doors so that we don’t have to back the trucks up into the fire hall anymore. Instead, we can drive straight through. We have a proper hose drying tower so that we don’t have to lay our wet hose on the floor, which causes tripping hazards. This will also improve the time it takes to dry the hose, so we don’t have to go back and flip it when it’s it’s hanging. We have a proper meeting room, where we have televisions to watch training videos. We have a gym built into this fire hall, which is important for staying healthy. We have a lounge, and upstairs there’s a whole open area that is left for future development,” MacLeod added.
The new fire hall is also located in a spot with more accessibility. MacLeod told us, the previous hall was located across from a school, and that created some issues because of the number of vehicles when kids were being dropped off and picked up.
“It was always a challenge to get trucks out and back in when responding to calls,” MacLeod stressed.
There are also two storage tanks, which can hold around 25,000 gallons of water in the ground. “We have a pond out back that will catch storm water, which will give us a water setup in Town limits. Water is always a challenge for us, and we usually have to go to rivers and creeks. This will give us plenty of water, more than enough water to deal with any kind of house fire, or for a commercial fire like we recently had at the Independent grocery store. It will give us quick access and a good jump on a fire like in Salisbury,” MacLeod stated.
The department currently has 27 volunteer firefighters. MacLeod says they were all thrilled to visit the new fire hall for the first time.
“Everyone got the chance to go through the hall last week before it opened, and they each got to pick their locker. That was exciting for them,” MacLeod said.
Many Salisbury residents have already been asking on social media when the public tours will be offered. MacLeod says they have been meeting with the Town and that subject has come up, “November 8 is the date. It will be announced officially soon, but that will be the day for the grand opening, and there will be tours for that.”
This fire hall is big news for the Salisbury community as well. MacLeod says they’ll be there for a very long time, “My grandkids could be in there working from that hall in the future.”
More details on the planning and process of building the fire hall can be found on the Town of Salisbury website.
