Lone Oak Fire station will serve the community once again

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A fire station destroyed in a 2022 tornado will now be rebuilt.

For almost a year, there has been only a slab where the Lone Oak Volunteer Fire Station stood for 40 years.

Build back bigger and better. That’s what Neal Austin hopes the county can do.

The station was built for a different time, and with a growing area comes a growing need.

The Lowndes County District One Volunteer Fire Station on Caledonia Steens Road was destroyed by a tornado last year.

Lowndes County Fire Coordinator Neal Austin said that disaster is giving county leaders a chance to rethink how they provide fire services in a growing area of the County.

“We want to prepare for the future for expansion, we’ll add another truck there, a rescue or something down that line. We just wanna make sure that we get the biggest station the best station that we can get for the money. The insurance money was not enough to replace the station,” said Austin.

The fire station in the Lone Oak community was built at a time when there were fewer homes in the area and less need for fire services. Austin said since the county has to rebuild, they want to make sure they get the most bang for the buck.

“We are looking at starting the project or at least getting bids. Getting ready to start, looking into replacing. We know there is some increase in houses going up around. There are other things we are taking into consideration for expansion five, 10, and 15 years down the road. So we want to cover all of our bases on the front end,” said Austin.

Austin said preparation for expansion is key when lives are on the line.

“My biggest focus is to try and get the best fire protection we can get for the people that we serve in Lowndes County, and to do that we need to have stations in certain areas. For rating purposes, I believe that all of that in that area is a class seven rating so that helps with insurance ratings and there are new houses being built all the time. So, that area has been expanding as we anticipate some continued expansion so we wanna make sure that we cover that,” said Austin.

Bids are expected to be brought before the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors at a later date.

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