Syracuse granted a record-breaking $413 million in building permits last year, with a large portion of that money going for new construction and refurbishing old buildings in the downtown corridor.
Among the first restorations in the area is Fire Station 12 on Genesee and Wallace Streets. On Wednesday, city leaders and area firefighters officially opened the station’s tall doors, dedicating it to service.
Under a shade tree at the corner, sat Syracuse’ retired Fire Captain John Larrison.
“In 1957, I came right to this station,” he beamed. “It was opened in 1923. Now they're reopening it again,” nearly 30 years after it closed, “it should have never closed. That was because of finances.”
With new construction boosted by tech industry investments and the demolition of I-81, Syracuse’s downtown region is experiencing a rebirth that demands infrastructure.
“It's been decades since we've opened up a new engine company and a new station,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh announced. “We have a lot of construction, that’s both an opportunity but presents challenges in making sure that we're getting to emergencies as quickly as possible.”
Fire Chief Michael Monds tempered his excitement over the growth with the reality of his fire department and its emergency services keeping with the pace.
“This redeployment is not just symbolic, it is necessary,” he told the gathering, “and it increases our capacity to respond to the record-breaking number of emergency calls for service we have been experiencing.”
With that, he called on a blessing for the new station and its firefighters from Syracuse Catholic Diocese’ Reverend Daniel O’Hara.
“We ask you therefore, Father, to send the power and the gift of the Holy Spirit upon all the Members of this department, wherever they may be. Give them the courage, the strength and the perseverance to go forth and do as you have invited them to do to protect and to serve,” he prayed.
As the event wound down, current firefighters listened to the rest of retired Captain Larrison’s experience when Station 12 was in another state of transition in the late 50’s.
“[That’s] when we started with the emergency medicine,” he recalled being one of the very first to train in CPR and first aid. “And as far as crews that would respond to your area, there wasn't any. So I was lucky to be in on the ground floor where it all got started.”
Within hours of its first day on the job, the newly renovated Fire Station 12 got its first emergency call, a block away on Willow Street.
For those firefighters living and working once again at the station on Genesee and Wallace Streets, Larrison offered, “It's a hard field to be in because you gotta work at it and it's constantly growing,” and then added, “I love this job, I was one of the few men in this world that could say they had a job they looked forward to going to work.”
