AMHERST, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - The Amherst Fire Department Central Fire Station has reopened after weeks of being closed.

Initially a four week closure, crews couldn’t use the station or the surrounding sidewalk area because of ongoing renovations to the Jones Library directly behind it.

Construction crews needed to run their sewer and utilities through Central Fire’s parking lot. In return, they freshly paved the parking lot which added another two weeks to the closure.

In that time, the firefighters bunked at the other station in town, North Station and it was a tight squeeze.

“We called it summer camp, everybody was together,” said Amherst Fire Chief Lindsay Stomgren. “A little bit of a challenge trying to fit two stations worth of people into one station, but, you know, everybody banded together. It worked well.”

Stomgren said that getting back to their homebase will better help the crews cover ground in cases of emergency especially as summer leads to a spike in calls.

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