Bridgeport Fire Department Opens Doors to Spacious, New-Look Station 51 Building
By Chris Johnson on November 17, 2023
Thursday was a cause for celebration for the Bridgeport Fire Department as a ribbon cutting took place at the Station 51 downtown location in honor of the renovation project for the building reaching the finish line.
A large crowd of fellow first responders, and city as well as state officials was on hand to help welcome the Fire Department into its new home.
“The staff deserves this,” Hart said. “One thing that catches people’s attention is the front of the building with the red garage doors, the oval openings, it gives them an old-time vision of a fire department.
“The guys really like the new bunk room facilities and having more room, more comfort in the day room. There’s just no comparison from the new building to what we had before.”
Overall space may be the key new addition. The bay is bigger, there is more office space and training space on the bottom level along with the living quarters which in addition to the bunk rooms and day room there is a large laundry room and an even larger gym.
“There’s a ton more room than what we had, there’s no question about that,” Deputy Fire Chief Greg Pigg said. “There were a lot of ideas that went into the building and we were allowed to give input and that was beneficial.”
Even smaller details stand out like a BFD emblem on the new office chairs and kitchen table.
“It shows a lot of pride and these guys have pride,” Hart said. “That’s one reason they are so effective at their jobs. If they fail, they feel it effects them personally. They go the extra step to provide a quality service.”
The renovatation project began in July 2022 when they started tearing the old building down and the final price tag was in the neighborhood of $3.5 million.
Fire departments of course are not the types of business that can shut down when a rennovation is under way.
“It was challenging, a little bit of an inconvenience for the staff,” Hart said. “They had temporary housing (a trailer next to the main building). The apparatus was inside some of the time, but for some of the major construction in the bay area, the apparatus was outside. If they got a call, no matter what the elements were, they had to come outside to get to the apparatus to respond.
“We had a skeleton crew down here and most of the operations were handled from the sub station (next to the United Hospital Center campus). We had to move a lot of stuff up there and it was crowded but we made it work.
“But at no time did this staff complain or miss a call for service.”
An added benefit to the expanded training area at Station 51 is one that hopefully is never put into use.
“The training room area is big enough that in case of a man-made or natural disaster where we would have to open an emergency operation center, that facility will double as that.”
The public is invited to see the new building and take a tour during an open house today that will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A light lunch will also be available.
More photos of the new building and the ribbon cutting ceremony will be posted on Connect-Bridgeport in the upcoming days.
Editor's Note: A large crowd of first responders and city and state officials were on hand for Thursday's ribbon cutting in the top photo. Second photo features Chief Hart and bottom photo is of a new office in the renovated building.
