Newark officials announce the grand re-opening of the Park Avenue Firehouse today.
The 116-year old Park Avenue firehouse was temporarily closed last July for extensive repairs.
During the closing, repairs were made to resolve issues of water leakage that damaged the building’s ceilings, walls and floors. Upgrades were also made to the firehouse’s electrical, heating and air conditioning systems and its kitchen and bathrooms were remodeled.
The Park Avenue station houses Engine 15 and Ladder 7 and serves a large portion of the city’s North and Central Wards. During the remodeling project, Engine 15 was temporarily assigned to the Department of Public Safety’s training and equipment facility at 191 Orange Street and Ladder 7 was assigned to the West Market Street Firehouse.
During 2016, Engine 15 responded to 1,098 emergency calls and Ladder 7 responded to 2,196 emergency calls.
The Park Avenue Firehouse, which also serves as an Ice Rescue Unit servicing the lakes of Branch Brook Park, will be manned by 36 firefighters and 8 fire captains.
“We are carrying out an unprecedented rebuilding of our infrastructure from the rehabilitation of our recreation centers to the repaving of 280 streets to deployment of new public safety technologies, the adaptive reuse of historic buildings and much more,” Mayor Baraka said. “The reopening of the Park Avenue Firehouse, preserving a historic building while upgrading and modernizing it, is another step forward in the transformation of Newark.”
“This firehouse has been a public safety icon to this community for over 100 years. The city, the people of this area and the firefighters that serve here deserve the restorations that were completed; and hopefully this icon will be here for another 100 years,” added Director Ambrose.