They’ve been officially open for about a week, and the firefighters at Station No. 7 near the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport already battled the city's biggest fire this year.
A storage warehouse burst into flames on Thursday after a small plane crashed into it. Firefighters from Station No. 7 were at the scene in less than seven minutes.
Battalion Chief John Maddox said battling the blaze inside of the warehouse filled with hazardous materials could’ve been a lot worse if crews hadn’t responded to it when they did.
“Inside, the building was completely demolished and burned up,” Maddox said. “The possibility of an explosion did exist, had that fire continued to burn out of control.”
Maddox said it was all about timing, and if the new fire station not been in place it would’ve taken crews double the amount of time to respond.
“The location that the incident occurred at prior to this facility being in place, would’ve taken 12 to 15 minutes, to get what we call a full compliment on scene,” Maddox said.
Slow response times were the main argument from nearby residents who fought to have the fire station built. In this case, those few minutes prevented what could’ve been a catastrophic event.
Fire officials said they could have responded to the scene much sooner, however 911 callers couldn't provide a specific location.