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AUSTIN, Texas - Fire station no. 53 has been in the works for the past six years, according to the city of Austin.
"This is a multi-million-dollar facility that started with a vision in 2018, and has gone through design, construction and now a wonderful grand opening," said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Peter Teliha.
On Saturday, first responders revealed the facility to community members in Goodnight Ranch.
"To really get to meet the first responders one-on-one and to get to know your neighbors is really where we want public safety to go," Chief Teliha said.
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Families were able to tour the new fire station and emergency vehicles, and gain hands-on experience.
"We have fight fire like a pro, where you can sit in the fire truc , you can spray water and knock over a cone ," said AFD Operations Public Information Officer Rachel Lewis. "Kind of get a feel for what we do."
According to AFD, the Goodnight Ranch joint fire and EMS station will improve response times.
"What we like to do within the city of Austin is provide. It's a standard across the country," Lewis said. "It's an 8-minute response time in order to keep up with that we need to put stations on the further outskirts of the city. This is one of the new stations that meets that requirement."
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The new fire station is equipped with four pull-through apparatus bays, eleven fire dorms, four EMS dorms, a kitchen, a gym and a list of features.
"This fire station embodies all of what we call the advancements in firefighter and public safety architecture, so it has cancer prevention systems in it, the plymovents to pull away exhaust. We have a separate decontamination room to clean up after calls," Chief Teliha said.
AFD plans to host a grand opening for the Canyon Creek fire station by the end of the year.