It took less than an hour to burn down what took 50 years to build.
Last January a fire destroyed a million dollars worth of equipment at the Brosville Fire Department. Now firefighters say what they've built is stronger than ever.
It looks and smells like a brand new squeaky clean toy instead of a 50 year old volunteer fire department.
"I never thought I would be celebrating it this way with having to buy new equipment, having to rebuild the station and stuff," said Fire Chief Chris Key.
Two brand new 2012 trucks, cutting edge equipment and more on the way.
Although it's nice, none of this was supposed to be here.
January 26th was the worst day in Key's career.
"I told them we had big plans for our 50th anniversary. We wanted to celebrate it and bring the community back into the fire department," Key said.
Two weeks later celebration planning quickly faded into building recovery.
A fire gutted this building damaging a brand new crash truck and an ambulance leaving the department on life support.
Friends nursed the crew back to health.
"I never thought it be that fast. With the crash truck coming in next Tuesday it's little bit over six months and its quite a big turnaround from January," Key said. "There's a couple ladies, they see us here and bring us a batch of cookies. It helps out. It makes you feel wanted."
Community kids even paid their support.
"Had a couple of them that live across the street brought their allowance and donated it to the fire department," Key said.
Half a year and a million dollars later, his crew now has something to smile about.
The department is celebrating its anniversary all next week.
Crews will go to area schools to remind kids about Fire Prevention Week, then next Saturday the department is hosting an anniversary party.
