Provo celebrates new downtown fire station

PROVO – Circling a calendar might not ever be something 4-year-old Caden Broyles does. But he sure was looking forward to Saturday.

"Do you know what this is?"Ashley Broyles, Caden's mother, asked him.

"That is a big fire truck," Caden said with a big smile.

His parents had been telling him about seeing the fire trucks because Provo was hosting a celebration for its new downtown fire station.

So, naturally, Caden had to wear his red fire helmet he found at the store.

"It was a random find, and he really wanted it," Ashley Broyles said.

Like many kids, Caden just has a fascination with firefighters.

"We have been at the park on 500 when there was a fire and so he was like, 'Oh the firefighters are coming!' And we were like, 'Okay, but we are going to move out of the way here,'" his mother said with a laugh.

So, Saturday just might have been his best day ever.

And not just for him, but for those kids who became firefighters.

"It is so exciting and it is a lot of fun to have a fire engine here," Provo Fire Chief Jeremy Headman said.

Headman helped to cut the ribbon during the ceremony in front of a few hundred people.

This new 12,000-square-foot building replaces the old Station 21 downtown that was built in the early 1970s.

With as fast as Provo is growing downtown, Headman said a new building to house more ladders trucks and engines was necessary.

"There is no more room to grow other than up in the downtown," Headman said. "It is the busiest district we have in the city."

And who knows?

This new station just might be where Caden works one day if his fascination becomes a career.

"I would totally support it. I think there are many jobs, including firefighting, that you are caring about the people around you," Ashley Broyles said. "He can do anything."

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