Muscle Shoals Fire Department opens Station No. 4
It has been a long time coming, but the City of Muscle Shoals can finally mark one big project off the list.
Muscle Shoals Fire Department officially opened its new Station No. 4 during a ceremony on Oct. 4.
The new location is at 2816 Old Highway 20, a section of the city that has been expanding over the last few years.
“This side of town is growing and will continue to grow,” said Muscle Shoals Mayor Mike Lockhart. “It will not only help service us, but back up other places in the county.”
Muscle Shoals Fire Chief Shawn Malone said his department currently has some difficulty responding to calls on that side of town — east to southeastern — when coming from the other side of the railroad tracks.
“This will eliminate that,” he said. “This area has gone from a 10 to 15-minute response time down to 3-5 minutes like other coverage areas. It is going to save lives.”
The Muscle Shoals firefighters celebrated opening the new station by pushing Ladder 4 into the vehicle bay by hand, a tradition among the craft.
Members of Muscle Shoals Fire Department push Ladder 4 into the vehicle bay of Station No. 4.
“It feels good to have the new station open,” Malone said. “Citizen safety is our No. 1 goal, and that’s why we do what we do. This was not just a project to build another facility, it was why we needed one — for the growth in the city. It’s been a long project with a lot of conversation, changes and updating.”
Malone said the new Safe Haven baby box that will be attached to the new station is set to be installed this week and will soon be operational.
The box allows any mothers of newborns who feel they cannot adequately provide for the child, or otherwise do not want them, to surrender the baby with anonymity in a place where the infant can immediately receive all necessary care.
Lockhart said he too is excited to finally have the new station in place ready and able to serve not only residents of Muscle Shoals, but beyond.
“It has been a long time coming,” he said. “This will be a great addition to this end of town, and like Chief (Malone) said, not only will this become the primary station in this area, it will give us relief in some of the others. This is a quality-of-life issue, and we want residents to feel safer when they lay their head down at night.”
