New Station Openings

The Washington DC suburbs are seeing a rash of new station openings. In Montgomery County Maryland, Station 34 opened on September 11 in the East Germantown Area. Known as the Milestone Station it is located at 20633 Boland Farm Rd off Route 355. Boland Farm is actually the old Route 118. Assigned is Engine 734 one of the many new Spartan Crimsons, a new Ambulance 734 plus Truck 734 currently from reserve. The rumor mill has either Tower 729 or the recently deactivated Truck 712 TDA going there. Soon to open is the rebuilt Takoma Park Station 2 still at 7201 Carroll Ave. This has a new and larger 3-bay apparatus room seperating the living sections that have used some of stone taken from Sligo Creek for the original 1928 castle-like station. In addition to Engine and Ambulance 702 living in a nearby temporary facility, this will likely bring back Truck 702 eliminating Truck 716 that replaced Truck 712 in July. It is uncertain if we'll see a return of Truck 701 so stay tuned.

In Prince George's County, Tuxedo-Cheverly Station 22 closed at the end of August to be replaced by the new Saint Josephs Station 6. Located at 2901 Saint Josephs Drive at Ardmore-Ardwick Road in Sprindale this was scheduled to open on August 29. The dedication ceremony took place August 31 with Reserve Engine 22 as the new Engine 806, joined by the re-assigned Rescue Squad and Technical Rescue plus Ambulance 806 and Battalion 801 (now 802). Issues with the building prevented it from actually going in service with the displaced units from Station 22 placed at nearby stations. Station 6 formally went in service on October 26. Station 22 will return to service by next spring with an engine or the quint and an ambulance. Stay tuned on this one.

To the south in Prince William County Virginia the new River Oaks Station 23 also opened September 11 at 16530 River Ridge Blvd east of US 1. Not too far from Potomac High School this, a No 3 substation of the Dumfries-Triangle VFD and Dumfries-Triangle RS, splits the gap between Station 3 and Station 12. It is assigned Engine 523 using what was Engine 503B plus one of the ambulances from Station 3 EMS.

In Washington DC, plans to renovate the circa 1916 built Cleveland Park firehouse on Connecticut Ave & Porter St NW were accelerated when issues were found necessitating its closure.  On November 9, Engine 28 and Truck 14 moved north to Engine 31's with Ambulance 28 east to Engine 21's. Renovation plans have reportedly been approved but no bids solicited.


For updated station apparatus rosters covering most of the above new stations (one for Prince Wiliam is in the works) go to Rustys Rosters Storefront or click on the links list at right.