Hamilton's VFD Construction

Hamilton has started construction of its new VFD building which was destroyed in last year's tornado.

Centered construction begins on a new hamilton volunteer fire department building.

The original structure was destroyed in last year's tornado that devastated the entire community.

Our cash matlock stopped by the work site today, and joins us in the studio with more on the story.

Video in monitor aundrea, crew members tell me they were out before sunrise this morning pouring the concrete that will soon be the foundation for a new vfd headquarters.

Fire chief raymond oliver says the entire re-building process has been bittersweet.

For almost a year and a half, the hamilton fire department has operated without a building.

To make due... firefighters have been parking their trucks in this old mechanic shop donated by a generous hamilton resident.

Fire chief raymond oliver says getting the funding for a new building hasn't been easy.

"lots and lots of paperwork, and that's one of the reason it's taken us a while to get back.

It's been about a year and four months since this tornado hit."

Oliver has been with the department since the early 80s.

The original building is all he knows.

He says it was an important part of the community.

"that building was built by a lot of guys here in the community, and most of them have done passed and gone on, but there's still one or two still around that helped with the building."

The new concrete slab marks the beginning of a new chapter for volunteers with the department.

"a lot of younger guys are coming in now to kind of take over our legacy or what you call old school and the technology.

So, a lot of the guys are coming in to do that, and you know, we've got some good trucks and good guys, and i'm proud of our fire department, i really am."

The new facility will be an 80 by 80 structure with a few more amenities than the original.

"we've got to you know build our training room and our bathroom, our kitchen, and we'll have a little office and a storage room in it, kind of like the old building had, but bigger of course."

Oliver says it took a while to get to this point, but the finished product is just a few weeks away.

"i'm hoping by 30 days from now that i've got a red and white building standing up."

Over half of the funding for the new structure came from me from fema, with insurance and donations from the community making up the rest.