Sneak peek at new Choctaw Beach fire station

FREEPORT, Fla. ( WMBB ) — Progress is underway in Walton County for a new fire station in Choctaw Beach. This new station will bring faster and more expansive emergency services to the area.

“We’ve designed a modern station. It’s roughly 12,700 square feet,” said Walton County Fire Chief Austin Pugh. “This will be the current best station that we have because it’s the newest.”

The facility sits off Western St. and Highway 20, 13 miles West of Freeport.  The new station will replace the decades-old facility down the road.

Chief Pugh said the shop will come fully loaded.

“This’ll be a two-story. Initially, right now, we’re working strictly on the lower part of the station as you see, there are six bedrooms down here, two bathrooms. We’ll have a conference room,” Pugh said. “We have three large bays, I believe these bays or anywhere from 88 feet. We have a dedicated gear room. So what we’ve done is we’ve placed this on the opposite side of the station. It’s going to have its own separate air system. That way we don’t get the the carcinogens and all that from the gear circulate it into the living area.”

Station 10’s construction was delayed in 2021 and 2022 by agricultural surveys. Work actually began last Sept.

Pugh said they hope to have the building up and running in early 2025.

Walton County Fire is also building two new stations in the north end of the county. One in the Darlington, Gaskin area and another in Mossy Head.

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