Photo by Eric Ayres Capt. Steven Moore of the Wheeling Fire Department, right, greets guests and prepares to take them on a tour of the new Wheeling Fire Department Headquarters during its open house on Saturday.

WHEELING — The Wheeling Fire Department’s new headquarters officially opened this month and on Saturday, scores of area residents got an opportunity to tour the new facility during an open house.

After years of construction and many months of delays, the new $9 million headquarters is fully operational and serving residents of Wheeling. Saturday’s open house drew many curious members of the public eager to check out the interior of the sprawling new building in East Wheeling.

Tom and Mary Miller of Wheeling were among the many local residents who came to check out the new home base for the city’s fire department.

“They need this,” Mary Miller said. “I had several uncles in the fire department — they’ve since passed. But they wouldn’t believe today how nice this is. They’d be very proud.”

Visitors came in waves and were able to go through the building in groups on guided tours conducted by fire department personnel. A steady flow of visitors made their way to the new facility at 1700 Wood St. to participate in the open house.

“This building is 25,000 square feet, which is more than double what our old fire headquarters was,” said Capt. Steven Moore from the Ladder 1 crew, one of a number of fire department officials who led tour groups during Saturday’s open house. “We have a lot more room for training, storage and just living in general.”

The new headquarters is basically a home away from home to firefighters who are on duty. Those working a shift are present at the station and ready at a moment’s notice whenever a service call is received, and a crew has to quickly respond to an emergency. There is a large kitchen area, a workout room, rooms with large lockers, rooms with beds and all of the accommodations to keep the staff at the ready at all times.

“We used to have one big barracks-style bunk room,” Moore said. “Now individual firefighters and officers have their own rooms in case anyone needs to get some sleep at night. We do 24-hour shifts from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m., and then whenever we get called out for emergencies, we respond to those as well.”

The new facility’s main entrance is on the east end of the building along 17th Street. Stairs lead to a lobby area and reception room. It is adjacent to a large conference room equipped with large video screens and microphones throughout the room so that participants in remote training conferences can participate and be heard from anywhere they are seated.

Administrative offices for the command staff, an intake room, a decontamination area and other new accommodations are included in the sprawling new facility.

The west end of the headquarters facing Wood Street houses several vehicles in the fleet. Much more than a “garage,” this large apparatus indoor housing area has five large bay doors that open onto Wood Street and two additional bay doors that open up on the 17th Street side of the building.

Currently, Ladder 1, Engine 2, Engine 8 and Squad 7, among other vehicles and apparatuses in the fleet, are housed at the headquarters. Moore noted that eventually, Ladder 2 will be housed there, along with some backup vehicles.

“It’s a busy place,” Moore said. “Between the responding companies and the investigators — we’ll do 4,000 incidents a year out of this building.”

The new headquarters’ response district covers East Wheeling, North Wheeling, the Central Business District and Center Wheeling to 27th Street.

Calls for emergency medical service are not answered out of the headquarters, officials noted. However, personnel on staff at the new facility are certified EMS paramedics, and there are fully equipped vehicles on site in case a situation arises where a quick response from this site is needed.

In addition to the new headquarters, the Wheeling Fire Department has several satellite stations located throughout the city.

Station 2 at 801 Main St. in North Wheeling services the entire city; Station 4 at 3618 Jacob St. services South Wheeling from 27th Street south to the corporation limits; Station 5 at 11 N. Wabash St. services Wheeling Island and the downtown on Main Street from Ninth Street to 12th Street; Station 9 at 1301 Richland Ave. services Warwood from River Road to the city limits at the Pike Island Dam; Station 10 at 298 Poplar Ave. services Fulton, Woodsdale/Edgewood, and Pleasanton neighborhoods from the foot of Wheeling Hill east to Wheeling Park; and Station 11 at 139 East Bethlehem Boulevard services Elm Grove and areas east from Wheeling Park.

Each station houses different fire trucks, ambulances or other firefighting apparatuses.

During the construction of the new Wheeling Fire Department Headquarters, the command staff, other personnel and a number of vehicles that were housed at the old fire department had to be temporarily relocated until the project was completed.

The previous headquarters was housed in the lower level of the old Centre Market Parking Garage, which was recently demolished. Fire Chief Jim Blazier, the administrative offices and other personnel and equipment had to be temporarily relocated to the Armory complex in Clator, while some staff members and equipment had to relocate to other stations in town.

Delays in the construction of the new headquarters centered around the former general contractor — &build, a PCS Company, which filed for bankruptcy when the project was about halfway completed. Work was eventually put back on track in the wake of legal proceedings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and Great Lakes Construction was named as the new general contractor, overseeing the project to its ultimate completion earlier this month.

Construction of the new headquarters was funded through the City Service Fee — also known as the User Fee. The fee was implemented by a prior city council, charging $2 per week for each person who works in the city. Out of that $2 charge, $1 goes to public safety — which was used to fund the new police and fire headquarters projects — and the other $1 goes to help fund needed infrastructure projects.