Lawton’s Central Fire Station closer to overdue renovations

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Lawton’s Central Fire Station is expecting some renovations after original plans were post-poned in 2012.

“Up until two years ago it served as our central fire station for all of the downtown fire crews that responded. It’s Lawton’s first fire station. The building’s been placed on the national historic register in 2016. It’s an important piece of not only the fire departments history, but the city’s history as well,” said Lawton Fire Chief Jared Williams.

With firefighting crews moved to the Public Safety building, the property currently houses admin and other fire officials. Chief Williams said the goal is to move fire marshals into the building to create a true headquarters.

“We’re losing a lot of the city’s original buildings. We just lost the police station, so having that and having that significance of being able to keep this as an operating fire station, under the city’s purview is a great way to maintain our facility,” said Williams.

One of the priorities in maintaining the facility is to maintain it’s history.

“The city of Lawton has a strong desire for us to where physically possible, to preserve that history and go back with windows that match the original windows, things like that. Preserve the brick ornamentation that’s on the building,” said the lead architect on the project, David Oman.

The project is looking at a phased approach to make sure they don’t bite off more than they can chew.

And for Oman, saving these landmarks keeps a piece of the communities history alive.

“Being able to be a part of that, preserving it, understanding it; peeling back the layers of history where you go in and start to remove some of the more current renovation work and getting back to the original fabric, that is very fulfilling,” said Oman.

“I made my first responses here like many others, and so I think the history of our fire department started here in the 1930′s as the first stand-alone fire station,” added Williams. “I think preserving that history, it’s important because to me as fire chief, and I think it’s also important to a lot of our current members and also our retirees that we’re able to preserve that history and maintain this as a functional building for the fire department.”

According to the architecture firm in charge of the project, they hope to have the overall master plan finished within 60 days.

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