Harrisonburg broke ground on a new fire station Tuesday morning. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
First responders and city leaders gathered in a field on Mount Clinton Pike to break ground on the fifth fire station in town. Retired Fire Chief Larry Shifflett told WMRA there's been a need for this station since the area northwest of downtown joined the city as part of a 1983 annexation.
LARRY SHIFFLETT: Every other area of the city has a response time that is less than the response time to the Park View area. … People don't realize how critical seconds and minutes are when you have a fire.

Their goal is to cut response times in this area from six minutes to four. Chief Matthew Tobia said they partnered with mathematicians at James Madison University to identify the best location to serve that goal. The new station will also relieve pressure on the next closest one, on Rock Street.
MATTHEW TOBIA: When a person's heart stops beating, we have about four minutes to be able to initiate effective CPR. … We need to be there fast. The other thing that happens is that fires burn so intensely today. … Everything is a synthetic fiber. Synthetic fibers are resilient, but they contain a tremendous amount of unburned energy.

Captain Joe Weaver is overseeing the project for the fire department. They hope to open the station in under a year – by next June.
JOE WEAVER: When I started 24 years ago, Station 5 was a dream of Chief Shifflett's, who hired me, so to see him retire and now to see this come true, you know, it's very bittersweet.
The project will cost more than $8 million, including the land purchase, construction costs, and a new fire engine. Five million of that was allocated from American Rescue Plan Act funds. Ongoing expenses will include salaries for 15 fire personnel.

Full disclosure – WMRA's operating license is held by JMU's board of visitors, and JMU underwrites programming on WMRA.