LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WTVF) – The city of La Vergne opened a brand new fire station on Old Nashville Highway on Wednesday.

Fire officials said the $12 million city-funded project has been in the works for nearly a decade.

The brand new 26,000 sq. ft. building features a new fire engine, four new bays, offices, training facilities and a 120-seat classroom. It is a major improvement over the old station on Stones River Road, which was built in the 1960s.

“Our old station that we came from was maybe 1,000 to 1,200 square feet and was run by the same people… so it was tiny,” explained Battalion Chief Cody Wilson.

He says the new station will help them respond to a growing number of emergencies.

“Year after year, it’s grown dramatically,” Wilson said, commenting on the call volume. “One of the things we tried to do when we built and designed the station was to design it for growth: not what we need today, but what we need 5, 10 years from now.”

Fire Chief Ronny Beasley adds that with the extra space they can hire more firefighters to help the community.

The new station is named after former fire chief Ricky McCormick, who died in 2018 but was a strong advocate for the new building.

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