Following a couple months of delay, the firefighters of District 3 are settling into their newly renovated station on Cross Road.

The $3.3 million project took about 10 months to complete. While there are still some minor adjustments and finishing touches being made, the building is largely complete. The trailer that was used as the main hub of activity inside the apparatus room during construction has been removed, and the team is utilizing – and sleeping inside – the new station.

The public is invited to come tour the new facility on Feb. 27 and 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days.

“One of the driving forces behind this whole addition is to make sure that we’re staffing priority calls, the calls where we could change the outcome if we got there sooner,” said Fire Chief Richard Arruda.

Arruda, who first joined the station about 30 years ago, said the amount of calls the district responds to annually has tripled in the time.

District 3 is responsible for North Dartmouth, starting 200 feet south of Allen Street. Station 1 on Cross Road is the main headquarters and main training area for the district. Station 2 is located at 1140 Hixville Road and Station 3 is at 254 State Road.

District 3 is responsible for UMass Dartmouth, the busy shopping district along Route 6 and the medical facilities on Faunce Corner Road.

“Those businesses create traffic, and in traffic, there’s accidents and car fires. So our responses go up. Not just fires, but hazardous conditions in buildings,” he said.

To ensure the district can handle the high call volume, the station was renovated with additional staffers in mind. Currently, only a handful of full time firefighters work at the station. They’re assisted by a team of about 45 volunteer firefighters.

A new addition toward the south end of the station has nine bunk rooms for overnight staff, giving the station enough space to grow comfortably over the next few decades. The rooms will be furnished as staffers are added. Arruda is currently assessing the district’s call volume to determine how many new firefighters he would like to add.

He said, ideally, the team would have a small team prepared to respond to high-priority calls at any time of the day.

“When there’s life in the balance or large property loss in the balance, time is everything,” he said. “So I’m hoping that if I bring a plan to the district tax payers, they will consider that we’re not looking to staff all calls. We’re looking to staff for those bad calls.”

In addition to the bunk area, the new station has a large training room, a kitchen and sitting area, space for a gym and administrative offices. The public can seek permits and conduct other business in a new glass lobby in the front of the building. This week, the fire station also acquired a new machine for refilling tanks with breathable air. The machine was purchased through a FEMA grant.

Dispatch services are now operational inside the main building and the firefighter who’s scheduled for a 24-hour shift can sleep in a room across from the dispatch center. During construction, the 24-hour firefighter would sleep in a trailer housed inside the apparatus room.

One such staffer, Lt. Tim Bernard, is happy to have finally moved into the building. He said the station has come a long way in recent times.

“I’m proud of this department. The guys come in and we help them with training and help them get set up for academy. Everyone gets along well here,” said Bernard.

“It’s the best job in the world,” he added.