Apex has decided to move its fire engine and crew out of their longtime downtown fire station. Whether the building itself survives is another question.

More than 150 people attended Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, with some standing at the back of the room. Many were there over the future of Fire Station 1.

For some former firefighters and longtime residents, preserving the brick, downtown firehouse alone would not preserve what makes Station 1 important. Its original three-bay section was built by volunteers in 1954 and expanded several times as the town and fire department grew.

Former Town Board member Christine Hilt, who represented Apex in merger negotiations with the volunteer fire department, called Station 1 “a living legacy to our storied and cherished small town past.” She pointed to children watching fire apparatus roll through downtown and visitors approaching trucks through open bay doors. As Apex grows, she said, leaders should protect its past as well as guide its future.

“Once an active station is gone, that tradition cannot be replaced,” Roy Moore, organizer of a petition seeking to keep Station 1 as an active firehouse, told the council. The petition had collected more than 1,300 signatures in three weeks.

Preserving the building as a museum would not be enough, Moore told The News & Observer. He wants Apex to renovate Station 1 and keep it operating as a fire station, with museum and fire-prevention uses alongside emergency operations.

Not everyone seeking to preserve Station 1 insists that emergency operations remain.

Longtime resident Elizabeth Stitt told The N&O she would accept moving emergency operations if the fire chief believes Station 3 on Hunter Street, about seven-tenths of a mile away, is a better location. But she wants the existing downtown building preserved as a community space. A museum, she said, would be acceptable.

Why Apex is moving the Station 1 fire engine to Station 3

Fire Chief Tim Herman defended the decision to move emergency operations to Station 3.

Herman described Stations 1 and 3 as effectively “one fire station under two roofs,” with the engine downtown and technical rescue equipment at Station 3. He said moving the engine to Hunter Street would spread fire resources more evenly across Apex and better meet modern firehouse needs. A 2018-19 Davis Kane Architects assessment found Station 1 would require extensive work to meet those needs, according to the town.

Herman said the department also commissioned an outside study to examine how its fire stations and resources are positioned across Apex. He said the study, presented to the council in May 2025, made moving the engine from Station 1 to Station 3 its first recommendation. But he also wants the Fire Department to maintain a downtown presence.

The Town Council unanimously approved $170,000 Tuesday for a study on the future of the Station 1 property. Apex selected Arcadis in early May to conduct the study, though the contract remains under final review. Economic Development Director Joanna Helms said the nine- to 10-month study will gather public input, examine what uses the site could support and consider potential public-private partnerships before recommending options to the council.

Tuesday’s vote did not close the station or authorize its demolition. Apex had already approved and funded moving Station 1’s fire engine and its crew to Station 3.

That differs from the town’s January solicitation, which said Station 1 was “intended to be demolished and replaced.”

The history behind the fight over Apex Fire Station 1

The debate also reflects tensions stemming from the town’s 2002 merger with the volunteer department. Council Member Ed Gray said officials have repeatedly heard former volunteers say they would not have agreed to the merger had they known Station 1 would eventually cease operating.

“There’s a real emotional component,” Gray said.

But the operational change has been developing for years. The Town Council was not in favor of remodeling Station 1 in 2019 and later adopted a Downtown Plan calling for reimagining the site as civic or mixed-use development. It supported the move to Station 3 in 2024, and subsequent budgets funded the Station 3 design and construction.

Whether Station 1 remains standing is unresolved. Town spokeswoman Kerrin Cox said no changes to Station 1 will begin until work on Station 3 is complete, and any future decision on the site will require Town Council action.

That leaves a narrower debate: whether to preserve Station 1 by saving the building or, as Moore argues, by keeping it a working firehouse.

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