Firehouse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A facility that serves as a base for firefighters and their equipment, supporting fire response and training activities
2. A structure utilized for the storage and maintenance of firefighting vehicles, as well as housing the personnel who operate them
3. A building designed to accommodate firefighting teams and their apparatus, enabling effective emergency response and community safety efforts

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "firehouse" is that for centuries it meant nearly the opposite of a station for fire engines. Its Old English ancestor, "fȳrhūs", named a room with a fire in it, or a furnace, and the Middle English "firhous" and "fyrehous" carried that sense forward. The word is a plain compound of "fire" and "house", and the older sense is still visible in its parts: a house built around a hearth rather than a building housing equipment. Only later did the word come to name the place where firefighting apparatus was kept. The shift was gradual and follows the logic of the compound: a building organized around fire became a building organized around fighting fire. Modern usage has settled on the sense of a base for crews and their gear.

Synonyms: fire station, fire department