Raleigh opens larger, modern Fire Station 3 on Rock Quarry Road

Raleigh will put Engine 3 into a larger, more modern station on Rock Quarry Road, a move city leaders say should give firefighters safer working space and room for faster, better-equipped responses in eastern and downtown Raleigh. The new Fire Station 3, set to open Monday at 936 Rock Quarry Road, replaces the cramped 1951 building at 13 S. East Street, about 1.7 miles away.

The new station is 11,105 square feet, more than three times the size of the old one, and cost $11.5 million. It will initially house a single engine company with 12 firefighters, but Raleigh designed the building to support an electric fire engine later. If that happens, staffing at the station could double to 24 firefighters. Fire Chief Herbert Griffin said the facility will bring modernized technology and EV capacity, while Assistant Fire Chief Danny Poole said the old quarters were cramped and the new building gives firefighters much-needed space.

The move matters because Station 3 serves eastern and downtown Raleigh, where call volume is heavy. Raleigh Fire Department officials say the city has 28 fire stations and answers about 50,000 calls for service each year. The new site sits on a 1.74-acre parcel next to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Gardens, a nonprofit community health clinic, an elementary school and the YMCA, putting the station in the middle of a busy, densely used corridor.

The new design goes beyond square footage. It includes a private room for evaluating patients and a decontamination room so firefighters can remove hazardous materials from their gear before returning to living quarters. That setup is meant to reduce exposure for crews who spend long hours at the station and respond to everything from fires to medical calls.

The new building also carries Raleigh history with it. City officials say Fire Station 3 is tied to the Victor Fire Company, Raleigh’s first volunteer Black fire company, which operated in the building that became the original Station 3. To honor that legacy, the station will feature public art by Maxwell Emcays, including a lighted history walk, a sidewalk timeline, benches with inspirational words and a sculpture centered on firefighter service and sacrifice. Raleigh Arts said the design grew out of community surveys and stakeholder conversations, giving the city a station that is meant to serve today’s demands while acknowledging the people who built its past.