Austin Fire Department’s latest station is officially in service as of noon Sunday.

AFD says its Fire Station 51, located at 5410 Highway 290, will serve citizens in the Travis Country and Sunset Valley areas of southwest Austin.

Firefighters from Station 51 also responded to their first fire Sunday, which was in the kitchen of the CK Thai Cuisine located at 5207 Brodie Lane.

Structure fire 5207 Brodie Lane, small fire in kitchen of CK Thai Cuisine was extinguished by sprinkler system. Crews mitigating smoke and water. The inaugural run for brand new Station 51 in Sunset Valley.

This is the second of five new high priority Fire-EMS stations approved by Austin City Council. The first opened last year for Del Valle and southeast Austin.

When construction started in 2019, AFD told KXAN response times to most calls in that area fell between 13 and 14 minutes, considerably slower than its goal of eight minutes.

The plan was to keep people and property safe, and also reduce insurance rates.

In 2018, a report found 175 homeowners were at risk or had already seen their rates rise as much as $1,000 because they lived more than five miles from a fire station.