Fire Station 2 is in critical condition.
The former Woodville Fire Station, which was built in the 1960’s, sat unmanned for years. That changed when the COVID-19 pandemic forced social distancing requirements on the fire department. To maintain adequate staffing levels they assigned firefighters to the station for the first time in years.
But the building has fallen into disrepair. The roof is leaky, windows are broken, and the mortar that holds the walls together is cracked and crumbling. The facilities are no longer safe for our firefighters, so all staff have been relocated to Station 1 downtown.
The consequence of this? Emergency calls to the Spring Street / Fruit Street / North Road side of town now take twice as long – up to 15 minutes for some locations – for the fire department to respond as they did when Station 2 was staffed. Astute readers can imagine the potentially catastrophic implications of this.
“Our mission is to provide the best possible care to Hopkinton’s residents,” said Fire Chief William Miller. “We cover 28 square miles. With Station 2 back online we will be able to respond much more quickly than we’re able to from the central station.”
At Town Meeting last year voters approved $400,000 to make the needed repairs. In this video, Deputy Fire Chief Gary Daugherty Jr. gives us a behind-the-scenes tour of Station 2. He discusses how the money Hopkinton voters allocated is being spent, and what remains to be done to make the station fully operational.
