What's Inside Williamstown's New Firehouse — And Upcoming Costs

This week the League of Women Voters and the Milne Library hosted their fourth Citizen Academy, a program started last fall with the purpose of increasing civic education in Williamstown, and you know we LOVE civic education. If you couldn't make it this week, don't worry, we've got you covered with what was discussed. We are also going a little beyond what was covered at the meeting and have added an informational section at the bottom of this article that talks about the Fire District in general, and what meetings are coming up that you can attend.

This meeting was hosted at the new Williamstown Firehouse. The old Water Street station was built in 1950, and after 75 years of service it had well and truly been outgrown. That building has now been retired, and what replaced it says a lot about where things are headed. But so does what's inside it.

Our Current Department

The department has about 30 active members: one deputy chief, two assistant chiefs, two lieutenants, and 24 firefighters. All of them are paid-on-call, meaning they have other jobs and lives and respond when the alarm goes off. Chief Dias is the department's only full-time career staff member. Twelve of those paid-on-call firefighters are Williams College students.

The Trucks: Upcoming Expenses

The talk quickly turned from the new station to the upcoming needs of the department.

When Dias took over as chief about a year ago, one of his first calls was to pull Engine 1 out of service — he didn't think it was safe enough to drive, let alone fight fires with. Funding for a replacement was approved last fall. A direct replacement would have run about $1.1 million, but by choosing a different chassis they've brought that estimate down to closer to $800,000. Engine 2, which carries the Jaws of Life equipment, recently needed major repairs costing roughly $50,000. That's left Engine 3 carrying most of the load, with a replacement price tag around $700,000 when the time comes.

The department's Tower 1 truck is in decent shape after $30,000 in recent work and should last another seven to ten years — but replacing it won't be cheap, and the reason goes well beyond Williamstown.

Fire truck prices have become a national crisis. The price of a single fire engine rose 64% in just four years. A pumper that cost $500,000 in 2013 now costs $1 million. Delivery times have stretched from about one year in 2019 to three and a half years today. The cause is industry consolidation: three companies now control roughly 80% of all fire truck manufacturing in the United States. It's gotten enough attention in Washington that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana in a bipartisan investigation. The senators wrote that they had heard from dozens of fire departments about delivery delays, defective parts, and price increases, concluding that "private equity is padding shareholders' wallets at the expense of public safety." A Senate hearing followed in September 2025 and the investigation is ongoing. For a small department like Williamstown's, every truck that ages out costs significantly more to replace than it would have five years ago. 

The Hydrant Problem

Only about 11% of Williamstown is covered by fire hydrants. That means when there's a house fire in most of town, firefighters don't have a plug to hook into. They rely on Tanker 4, purchased in 2021, which carries 2,600 gallons of water, plus mutual aid from neighboring communities like Pownal and Pittsfield. This also affects your homeowner's insurance indirectly — Williamstown holds a Class 4 ISO rating, a national scoring system insurance companies use to gauge fire protection. Maintaining that rating requires continued investment in equipment.

Grants Help, but There's Uncertainty

The department has historically leaned on federal grants for things like air packs — the breathing equipment firefighters use inside a burning building — which must be replaced every five years. New radios are also on the wish list. Dias said the department is actively pursuing grants and partnerships, though some federal programs have been less predictable lately due to administrative changes at the federal level. The funding streams still exist, but the timing is harder to plan around.

Dias Takes Questions

Audience members asked Chief Dias two questions. First: how large should the department be? He said he’d like to grow to about 40 members, up from the current 30. Second: what’s being done about fire prevention? He pointed to the department’s elementary school education program and a public open house scheduled for Sunday, May 30, from noon to 2 PM.

Beyond Citizen Academy: How does this budget work?

If you've made it this far and your brain is screaming "ok but WHO IS PAYING FOR ALL OF THIS" — same, honestly. The Fire District works differently than most people expect, and it's worth understanding because it affects every property owner in town.

The fire department is not funded through the town budget the way the police department or public works are. It's a separate taxing entity under Massachusetts state law, with its own elected board, its own treasurer, and its own budget process — running alongside town government but not controlled by it. The fire district is overseen by the Prudential Committee, an elected five-person board that, under state law, has the power to raise its own revenue through taxation on all real and personal property within the district, and operates independently of town government, including the Select Board.

The budget is brought to an annual district meeting, held around the same time as the annual town meeting, where all registered voters in town can participate and vote. The fire district shows up as a separate line on your property tax bill. If you want to dig into the numbers, iBerkshires has done some great recent coverage — including this piece on potential budget hikes and this one on why the tax rate is expected to dip slightly this year. Yay for local news!

What's coming up next?

The district's annual meeting is May 26 at 7:30 PM, location TBD. The draft warrant includes an $80,000 request to replace outdated equipment including protective gear, breathing apparatus, radios, and hoses, up from $12,000 approved at last year's meeting. The district's stabilization fund — a savings account for big purchases like trucks — would need to be significantly larger to keep pace with the vehicle replacement schedule, though it's currently budgeted at $200,000. If you want a say in how these decisions get made, that’s the meeting to attend.

The Bottom Line

The direction of the department is clear. Chief Diaz has laid out a plan to grow staffing and modernize the equipment needed to serve a town with limited hydrant coverage.

The harder question is what comes next. Those improvements will require significant investment, and it will ultimately be up to voters to decide what level of funding — and taxation — the community is willing to support.