ONTARIO, N.Y. — Wayne County has upped its fire emergency response. Ontario Fire Company opened a new fire station on Lakeside Road.

Ontario Fire Company is celebrating 115 years of service. Station #3 will serve the northwest side of town.

What You Need To Know

  • Station #3 is located at 6714 Lakeside Rd. at Berg Road

  • The station was added to provide faster response to calls northwest of the district

  • Station 3 has two bays to help provide complete fire emergency coverage to the town of Ontario

Josh Dundon grew up in Ontario. He started out as a fire explorer in high school, joined the Marines and is now the Ontario fire chief. It’s an all-volunteer fire district that serves some 10,000 residents and covers more than 33 mi.².

“It is public safety and we are here for the community, “said Josh Dundon.

Ontario Fire Company has more area to cover since Union Hill Fire Department closed a couple of years ago.

“The town is growing, and what is nice about having this engine here is that we have members who live on the side of town who can now respond here instead of going to Brick Church Road or Ridge Road," said Dundon. "It takes a lot of time, believe it or not, in a small town. It just decreases response time which gets our fire trucks on the scene faster, which obviously mitigates the emergencies quicker. As soon as Union Hill started planning to close we started looking into it. It took some planning to find the land to purchase it to build a fire station that meets the requirement of being within five road miles of everywhere on the side of town.”

Pagers and a smartphone app alert volunteer firefighters to fire emergencies. There are about 70 volunteers, 40 of them are active volunteer firefighters who responded to 351 fire calls last year. Station #3 will help get them there faster. The new station houses two fire emergency vehicles, a lounge, kitchen, office and restrooms.

“We are blessed because our community really supports the fire department and enjoys our service and respects us and gives us a tremendous amount of support so it works,” said Ontario Fire Co. Board Chair John Agnello.

The fire department always welcomes new volunteers.