Local leaders celebrate the grand opening of Fire Station 5

A year ago, Hopkinsville Fire Department officials and city leaders broke ground on Fire Station 5, and on Friday, they celebrated the station’s completion with a ribbon-cutting.

The station is located at 101 Walton Way in southern Christian County and was constructed out of a preexisting building. The last time a new station was added to the department’s footprint was in 1999.

When he became Mayor of Hopkinsville in 2022, J.R. Knight says the idea to establish a fifth fire station was a part of the department’s five-year plan. One day, while Knight was at church, a friend told him about the location at Walton Way that could be a good fit for a new station. Following their conversation, Knight says he drove to the location to check it out.

Knight calls Fire Station 5 an investment in Hopkinsville’s quality of life and thanked leadership from the department and the Hopkinsville-Christian County Ambulance Board for playing key roles in bringing the station to life.

Since construction began, Department Deputy Chief Bill Pyle says nearly every day he was working with architects and contractors. He says the station was built to emphasize safety, efficiency and the future needs of the community.

The department’s coverage region reaches down to the Interstate 24 on-ramp along Fort Campbell Boulevard. Before Fire Station 5 opened, firefighters at Fire Station 4 on Eagle Way Bypass were the closest to that area.

Fire Chief Steve Futrell says as neighborhoods in southern Hopkinsville continue to grow, the new station will allow them to respond quicker to calls for service in those communities.

The 38,000 square foot station has a training center and spaces to host fire academy and EMT classes. Work continues outside of the station to establish a training tower and a helicopter pad.