The City of Harrisonburg has told Hose Company No. 4 to get out of the Rock Street station that’s been its home for decades.
The company, started in 1890, is the oldest in Rockingham County, and it currently shares space with the Harrisonburg Fire Department in the same firehouse, which is owner by the city. But over the years, the volunteer department’s focus has become calls outside the city in the surrounding area.
Now the city is telling the volunteers to relocate by September. The department can operate out of the Rockingham County station, but there is not enough room for its apparatus in that facility. In addition, Hose Company 4 says that move would leave areas in some parts of the county with a longer response time.
So now it’s looking for temporary quarters while it tries to pull together funds for a new facility.
“We’ve been through World Wars we’ve been through pandemics; we’ve been through a lot of things that businesses and people in Harrisonburg have and we’ll be there, hopefully, for another 133 years,” Training Chief Bill Purcell told WHSV,
