A two-alarm fire gutted a volunteer fire station in Mount Albert Sunday morning, leaving the town vulnerable to future emergencies, according to East Gwillimbury fire officials.

The blaze broke out around 8:15 a.m. requiring volunteer firefighters from Holland Landing and Queensville to respond.

“It’s absolutely devastating,” said Cathy Morton, an East Gwillimbury councillor and resident of Mount Albert.

“It’s disastrous because of where we are located within the municipality. We need a fire station; our volunteers are our lifeline.”

She said senior staff are meeting to come up with an action plan to discuss the next steps to ensure adequate fire coverage for the area.

“It’s imperative we get this up and running again as soon as possible,” Morton said.

“This is a significant loss to our community and to the firefighters of the Mount Albert fire station,” Mayor Virginia Hackson said in a statement.

East Gwillimbury fire chief Phil Dawson said he is in ongoing discussions with surrounding communities to implement both short-term and long-term measures to fully restore emergency services to the residents of Mount Albert.

“The town and myself are really focused on ensuring that the immediate level of coverage and community safety is addressed for Mount Albert and the town of E.G.,” he said.

“Thankfully there were no injuries to firefighters or residents.”

He declined to speculate on the value of the damage, however, the station was completely destroyed including a number of fire trucks and equipment.

“It’s a write-off,” said Bev Gettler, an employee at Home Hardware, which is located beside the fire station.

“There were explosions all over. All the diesel tanks blew as well as the tank that was on the side of the building.”

She said it took about 30 minutes for firefighters from surrounding communities to arrive.

The fire was brought under control by 1 p.m.

“It’s with sadness we report the total loss of the Mount Albert fire hall to fire. We understand the emotional toll of the loss,” the Central York Professional Firefighters Association said on Twitter.

The E.G. Fire Department has three stations, including the one in Mount Albert, and is staffed by a mix of full-time and volunteer firefighters.

The Central-York, Georgina and Whitchurch-Stouffville fire departments are on standby and ready to help in case there is another emergency in East Gwillimbury.

No injuries were reported, however, a fire that killed four people in the town of Sharon last March spurred debate about the need to have an around-the-clock fire department.

In December, town council decided to hire six additional full-time firefighters by the end of 2014 to create a 24/7 fire department. The new firefighters are expected to be stationed at the Queensville fire station once renovations are complete.

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The plan also calls for four more firefighters to be hired at the end of 2015 and another four by the end 2016, giving the force 20 full-time firefighters by 2017.

The plan to create a full-time fire department was originally scheduled for 2015-2016, but was expedited due to the town’s population growth.

Currently, East Gwillimbury has six full-time firefighters and 81 paid on-call volunteer firefighters.