A NEW £6m fire station in Basingstoke will benefit communities across the county, says the chief fire officer for Hampshire.

At the opening of the state-of-the-art station on Friday, February 16, Chief Fire Officer Neil Odin said: “This is a modern station for a modern era.

“It will be of benefit to the county as a whole and help the fire service carry out its job of keeping the communities of Hampshire safe.”

The station has 64 full-time firefighters, 18 on-call firefighters and four members of the Community Safety team.

It also has three fire engines, an aerial ladder platform, a response support vehicle, a command vehicle and a small fires vehicle.

The last station to be built for the service was in Winchester seven years ago.