Bridgeport (West Virginia) celebrates reopening of main fire station

“We’ve been looking forward to this day — to get back into the main station for a while,” he said. “Now everything is under one roof.”

The $3.9 million renovation project, which started back in July of 2022, forced first responders to serve from substations throughout the city.

“It was a great inconvenience to our staff, but not one time did they complain or did they miss a call to serve the citizens of Bridgeport or people just passing through,” Hart said.

City Council member Jonathan Griffith said the fire station improvements were “long overdue and well deserved for one of the best fire departments in the state, if not the region.”

Craig Baker, architecture division manager for The Thrasher Group, said that given the challenges of the pandemic supply crisis and unforeseen complications with construction, he was more than glad to see the project completed.

“The condition of the existing building wasn’t in as good of shape as we thought it was,” he said. “So once we started demolition, we uncovered things that were unforeseen. Anytime you’re renovating an existing building, you’re going to have some challenges. The main thing for us was we wanted to adapt this facility into something that is complementary to the downtown area.

“This was also an opportunity to create a better functional space for the firefighters.

Baker added it was a pleasure to work with Hart throughout the project.

Andrea Kerr, Bridgeport’s community development director, was on hand for the ribbon cutting.

“I feel like everybody in general is happy to see this project come to fruition and be open for the guys,” she said.

“The firemen, for the last year and a half, have been living in a small trailer,” Kerr said. “That’s been hard on them, but now that the construction is finally done and everyone is moved in, I think everyone is really pleased with how it turned out.”

Collaboration between City Council and the city administration made the renovation project a reality, she said.

“Everybody came together to make the best possible facility for them,” she said.

Hart was more than pleased with the improvements made to the fire station.

“The biggest impact was moving all the living quarters and everything upstairs, while leaving all of the administrative offices on the ground floor. It’s just a great addition all around — from the day room to the bunk rooms to the exercise room,” Hart said.

With the expansion of the main station, Hart hopes to add to his team of 30 first responders to meet the needs of the community. As one of four fire departments in the state certified to provide dual fire and EMS services, the Bridgeport department stays more than busy, Hart said.

“The request for service is increasing, and to keep up with that and the growth, we will eventually have to look at hiring,” he said.