The Williamstown Fire Department (WFD) opened its new fire station on March 21. The station, located at 580 Main St., replaces the one built in 1950 at 34 Water Street. The old station had long failed to meet industry standards and had significant size constraints that impacted WFD’s ability to rapidly respond to emergencies, according to Chief Jeffrey Dias. The new building is net-zero, meaning all of its energy is generated by on-site solar panels.

WFD has seen a significant recent uptick in incident responses, which contributed to the need to construct a new station. The department responded to a record-high 458 incidents in 2025, a roughly 20 percent increase from the prior year, according to a March 18 press release from WFD Public Information Officer Jim Reische.

Dias did not attribute the rise in calls to an actual increase in fires, but rather to a heightened awareness of the risk of fires and the department’s role in stopping them, resulting in more smoke detectors being made operable and residents making more frequent calls to WFD. Additionally, the widening role of the department itself — which also began responding to motor vehicle accidents and other emergencies over the past 70 years — has increased their incident response number, according to Dias. “The significant increase in calls puts a strain on the organization,” Dias said in an interview with the Record. “And it certainly does in a building that was outgrown 30 years ago.”

The push to build a new station began in 2008, according to Dias, when WFD realized that a new station was necessary to adapt to improving firefighting technology, such as larger firetrucks. In order to authorize the budget for the new station, which partially comes from taxpayers, WFD needed to win a two-thirds “super majority” in an election held at biyearly Town meetings. They lost twice in 2013.

In 2023, WFD revisited the possibility of a new station, and the spending plan received overwhelming community support, according to Dias. Registered Town voters approved a borrowing plan to begin building. Several grants also contributed to the project’s funding, thus lowering the tax rate for Town citizens. The College donated $5 million.

According to Head of the Town Select Board Stephanie Boyd, the support resulted from WFD’s increased outreach and the fact that there were no longer other building projects at the time. In 2013, Mount Greylock Regional School underwent several renovations that increased the Town’s tax rate.

The new station may also attract more firefighters, according to Boyd. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to recruit firefighters,” she said in an interview with the Record.

Dias believed that the recent support was because taxpayers saw how the price would continue to increase if the construction was continually delayed.

As of the 2026 fiscal year, property owners pay $1.22 per $1,000 of assessed value. This is an 85 percent jump from the 2025 fiscal year, in which they paid 66 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. This increase is largely driven by bond payments on the new station.

The fire station is almost four times larger than its predecessor and includes features that were built in compliance with National Fire Protection Association standards.

The new facilities include employee showers, garage bays that allow several trucks to simultaneously exit the station, and machines to clean contaminated equipment. The old station did not have the space for any of these features, according to Dias. “They were cleaning the mats that we wear inside of a fire … in the kitchen sink,” he said.

The limitations of the old station inhibited the department’s ability to rapidly respond to calls. Previously, several firefighting vehicles were parked with one behind the other. Firefighters changed into their uniforms just feet away from the trucks, with the possibility that they would be hit when the trucks were leaving, according to Dias.

The effectiveness of the new station was exhibited when they responded to a fire on Saturday. “The difference has been night and day,” Dias said.

On May 30, WFD will host a dedication ceremony in which they will uncouple a fire hose — rather than cutting a ribbon — to officially welcome Town residents inside the building. “We call it the station dedication, but … this is a firehouse, not a fire station,” Dias said. “A fire station is a building with walls and floors and roofs. A firehouse is the home of the fire department.”

The station will likely last for the next 50 to 75 years, Dias said.“This building allows us to be better, smarter, faster and more efficient to the people that we serve, because that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “When they call 911, they want the best. Nobody calls 911, and says, ‘Send me two dummies in a pickup.’”