LEHI, Utah — Fire Station 84 officially opened its doors in Lehi on Thursday. Two girls observed the construction for over a year and were excited to finally get a glimpse inside.

“Every day on the way to school we would look at its construction because we would pass by it,” said 9-year-old Marlie Leavitt. “It was really small and it got really big.”

When they first saw the building, the girls would bet on what they thought the building would be like.

“Sunny, what did you think that was?” Marlie asked her 5-year-old sister, “McDonald’s,” Sunny said.

“We’ve been looking at this for a long time, and seeing it actually put together, seeing the inside, how nice it is, all the nice people here, really fun,” said Kadie Leavitt, their mother.

On Thursday, the community was invited to the pipe dedication ceremony and to tour the fire station.

Marlie and Sunny were able to explore every corner with their mother and even worked out at the gym like real firefighters.

“Sunny, do you know what firefighters do?” » asked Marlie. “Put out the fires,” Sunny replied.

Lehi City Fire Chief Jeremy Craft said that over the past two years, the average response time to incidents on the city’s west side has been about 12 minutes. Since this new fire station opened about a month ago, those response times are now around 4 1/2 minutes. So for families like the Leavitts who live nearby, they are excited about this initiative in their community.

“It looks really good and it looks cool,” Marlie added.

Many children also put on their fire helmets and made the new station their playground.

“We could have future firefighters here,” Chief Craft said. “And at the very least, we’ve opened them up so that they understand that we’re their friends, and that opens the door for us to be able to educate them about fire safety, medical stuff, and God forbid we go home and they need us, we are friendly faces with them now”

“It gives them reality,” Kadie said. “You always see it on TV or on the side of the road, but for them to learn about it and see it first hand, it’s a lot of fun for them to see.”

And perhaps this experience sparked new career dreams. “Thank you for being so awesome and helping people,” Marlie and Sunny said to the firefighters they met.