Marbury Volunteer Fire Department moves into new permanent station
After three years in temporary spaces, Marbury firefighters are back under one roof at 2774 Highway 143, a rebuild tied to the 2023 tornado and taxpayer-funded recovery.
Marbury Volunteer Fire Department has moved into its new station at 2774 Highway 143 in Deatsville, ending more than three years of working from scattered temporary spaces after the January 12, 2023 tornado damaged the original building. Construction began in late October 2025, and firefighters moved apparatus into the seven-bay station in June 2026.
Chief Kenneth Barber has led the department for more than 20 years. During the interim, trucks were stored in multiple locations around the community, meetings were often held at a local church when weather allowed, and training had to be arranged wherever space could be found. Emergency response never stopped, but the daily logistics made every part of the department’s work harder.
The department can keep everything under one roof again, giving crews a more orderly place to train, meet and prepare for calls, Barber said. The building is about the same size as the old station, which dated to the late 1990s, but the layout was redesigned around the department’s current needs rather than the old footprint. It now houses six emergency vehicles and a utility side-by-side used for search work and community events.
One of the biggest changes is inside the building. The station has a larger classroom and meeting area, while the kitchen was reduced and combined with classroom space to create a more functional room for training and department business. The new structure also includes improved insulation and other modern construction features meant to make it more durable and efficient than the building it replaced.
The rebuild grew out of the January 12, 2023 tornado outbreak that tore through Autauga County. The National Weather Service Birmingham rated the main tornado EF-3, said it tracked about 82 miles and caused at least seven fatalities in Autauga County. FEMA later opened disaster recovery centers for Alabama tornado survivors on January 26, 2023 and designated the storm Disaster 4684-AL, with the incident period beginning January 12, 2023.
Autauga County created a Disaster Relief Fund in January 2023 to help residents with unmet needs after the tornado.
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