GEISMAR - Explosive growth means a bigger demand for first responders. Now a new fire station is under construction for the Geismar community.

With new subdivisions popping up in the city comes an increase in service calls. Lawrence Jones lived in Geismar for years. He says the growth is inevitable. 

"When I moved here in 1980, it was nothing but fields. Now they got about five subdivisions in there," Jones said.

For the Geismar Volunteer Fire Department, this new building is a must.
The station will have 10,000 square feet of workspace with plenty of room for fire trucks, big enough to serve the future of this fast-growing area. 

"They're building these two and three and four hundred thousand dollar houses and not realizing that the protection of their home is dependent upon volunteers," Fire Chief Nathaniel Stephens said.

The original fire station was a metal-framed building built in the 1970s.
It was too small to meet the demands of the city.

In 2016, the fire station flooded, leaving eight to 10 inches of water inside. The old station was demolished to make room for the new building.

Fire crews are now working out of a temporary facility.

"There's a sense of pride, and a sense of accomplishment realizing from the beginning what we started out with," Stephen said.

The cost to build a new fire station isn't cheap, coming in at about $1.6 million to build. The station is expected to be complete in March.