Salem Fire celebrates new station in Morganton

Salem Fire Rescue's new station on Salem Road in Morganton is officially open.

The department opened the doors Saturday afternoon, said Salem Fire Chief Charles Autrey.

The opening came a little more than a year after construction crews broke ground on the new station. It features four pull-through garage bays — enough space for eight fire trucks. It can hold all of the department's fire trucks, if needed, Autrey said.

The department marked the end of the old station's 53-year life with an uncoupling ceremony, where firefighters uncouple two pieces of fire hose for a twist on a traditional ribbon-cutting.

"The new building is designed to serve our needs for the next 50 years without any changes or additions," Autrey said. "It does, however, have an expandable wall on the side so if they do need to add onto it 50 years from now, the expandable wall would accommodate that. They could actually build on additional sections and then remove the wall in between." The new station also has bedrooms that, eventually, will be furnished for firefighters to get some sleep between calls. Autrey said that will be helpful during serious weather events where firefighters are responding to back-to-back calls and need to get some rest.

"The firefighters and the community are very excited," Autrey said. "Firefighters take a lot of pride in the building. We have firefighters staying at the department a lot of times in the evenings, being there in case we're dispatched. It's actually cut down our response time on many calls ... Anytime you go to the fire station, there are usually firefighters there in the evenings and on weekends, even later at night, practicing training with their gear, mentoring new firefighters and ready to respond immediately."

Autrey said the station already is well-stocked after donations poured in from people around Burke County when Salem and multiple other Burke County fire departments were battling a wildfire on Burkemont Mountain. "We stacked bottles of water and food, snacks and supplies. They took up two entire bays in our new station," Autrey said. "There literally would have been nowhere to put those in the old station."

He said the department has been using some of those supplies on emergency calls it has been dispatched to, and it has donated other supplies to neighboring departments when needed.

The department currently has 46 firefighters on its roster, 30 of whom are trained either as emergency medical technicians or emergency medical responders.

"That's more than we've ever had before," Autrey said.

Chrissy Murphy is a staff writer and can be reached at or at 828-432-8941.