Lake Ozark Fire Protection District to expand

After 25 years of use, the Lake Ozark Fire Protection District’s Station One is under renovation.

“When I joined the department in ’94 as a volunteer, that was the first year we had 600 calls, this year we’re expected to top 1,200 calls. We’ve grown dramatically in the number of calls we run,” said Chief Mark Amsinger.

An increase in fires and an increase in staff are two major reasons why the facility is being remodeled by adding an additional 5,000 square feet.

Amsinger said, “We’ve made it work for as long as we could and finally we got to the point where we had to expand it out to make it more functional for us.”

The new building will feature a larger downstairs weight room, community meeting rooms, and private living quarters for each of the nine crew members on duty at a time.

“I’m looking forward to the extra room here, especially the bunk rooms that are going to be separated, one of our guys snores really loud, so I’m going to have my own room so I don’t have to hear that all night,” said firefighter and paramedic Bobby Allison.

The north and south additions will add new office space and new bays for trucks, making the station 17,000 square feet in total. Crews are currently operating out of the fire station while construction crews working hard to expand the existing facility. Allison said, “I’m definitely looking forward to May when we can get back to our normal routine and have nicer equipment and a training room.”

Firefighters will move back into Station 1 this March. The project is expected to be complete by May.