When Branson opens a new fire station, it celebrates in a big way. Casey and the Atta Boys played for a crowd gathered Wednesday for the grand opening of the new Fire Station 4 in southwest Branson.
The city's fire chief, Ted Martin, said it had been 27 years since the last new fire station in the city, but the community has grown since then.
"As the city annexed towards the south, towards Point Royale and some of the condo resorts down south, we knew we needed to improve our response time," said Martin. "We were seeing response times hit around 12, 14, 16 minutes sometimes, and this should get us closer to a five minute response model for emergency incidents."
He said the new station, on Champagne Blvd., will improve response times citywide, benefiting residents, business owners and visitors.
The station will have a captain, a driver engineer and two firefighters on duty 24/7 along with three fire engines and a ladder truck.
The Branson Fire Department has more than 50 personnel within the administration, operations, training/safety, technical services and emergency management divisions.
The $5 million station is funded through the 1/2-Cent Public Safety Sales Tax, which was approved by voters in 2017.
The city rang a bell and sounded sirens as the station's shiny red doors opened to the public.
