Crime & Safety
Patterson Mill Fire Station To Open in 2012
The Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company Patterson Mill Station is expected to open by next fall.
The Patterson Mill Station being built just south of town limits will be functional by “this time next year,” according to an official.
The new site is located at the corner of Maryland Route 924 and Patterson Mill Road, and is expected to help service an area experiencing high population growth.
“In our business, time is of the essence. So we need to be there as quickly as we can,” said Tony Coliano Sr., president of the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company.
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Coliano said Harford County government is fully funding the station as part of an agreement with the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company. The agreement said if a station needs to be built due to population growth it will be funded by the county.
The Patterson Mill Station will become the third house that is part of the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company. The main station is located on Hickory Avenue in Bel Air and the second is in Forest Hill on East Jarrettsville Road.
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Coliano says the station was already being planned when was built and that the addition of the school “certainly affirmed the decision” to build the station. The Patterson Mill Station will have the same color brick and will mirror the look of neighboring Patterson Mill Middle-High School.
The station will be a three-bay, drive-through location. When it first opens it will have a fire engine, an ambulance, a support unit and a collapse rescue trailer, Coliano said.
The fire company president added that the new station will service “all of the Bel Air South area and will certainly come into town … and through Wheel Road.” He said it will also service parts of Abingdon, specifically the Box Hill North area, as part of a mutual agreement with the Abingdon Volunteer Fire Company.
Coliano also encourages anyone interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter or EMS personnel to get membership information from the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company website, to call 410-836-JOIN, or stop in at a station.
“I encourage people to make a difference in someone else’s life and join the fire company,” he said.
