YORK COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) – Fire Station 1 in York County has a rich history. It was the first one built in the area, made possible by community members, who wanted to make a difference.

In its prime 60 years ago, it served the community well, but not everything ages like a fine wine.

“We began to experience maintenance challenges. The space was inadequate for our operations in fire and rescue services these days. The crew quarters needed to be updated,” explained York County Fire Chief, Steve Kopczynski.

After nearly 10 years of planning, the crew from Fire Station 1 officially moved into their new $7.5 million facility off Dare Road.

They broke ground on it back in May 2018 and it’s located about a block away from the old one.

“It ensures a more efficient response for our personnel, a safer response process for our personnel and certainly as I indicated earlier, since it’s a home away from home for all of our firefighters as they work on shift, it provides much improved living quarters,” said Kopczynski.

Kopczynski says their fire truck garage has big bay doors that open much quicker than the ones they used to have, so they can get out to emergencies quicker.

At the old station, he says the Route 17 widening project took a chunk out the apron in their fire truck bay area, which made getting in and out unsafe.

“The fire apparatus bay area, like the garage, was extremely tight. We had in fact in some cases to get one vehicle out we’d have to move another vehicle to go on emergency response,” he stated.

At the new station, there’s also a training tower, gym, lounging area, offices, and individual bunks.

The old station will hold library storage until they find a more permanent use.

Kopczynski says they’re in the preliminary discussion phase of building an additional fire station in the northern portion of the county because of the population growth.

The last new fire station in York County was built back in 1991. There are now six fire stations in the county.