The Alachua County Commission held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for a new fire station in Alachua.
The station is the second of four fire stations in Alachua County being built to relocate fire rescue crews closer to areas with growing populations.
Once the construction is complete, Alachua County Fire Rescue Station 21 will move from its current location near Highway 441 to 16121 NW 173rd Street in Alachua.
Fire Chief Harold Theus said the new location will help firefighters get to up-and-coming sections of the county more easily.
“As Alachua is growing, it’s growing further west. And so this location I think, for us, in a few years is going to be a very key centralized location,” said Theus. The new fire station will be more than twice the size of the current fire station and is meant to last more than 50 years.