FIRE crews in Southampton are back where they belong after the city centre's new state-of-the-art station was launched.

The £1.8m project in St Mary's was opened by the mayor, Councillor Chris Kelly, who contacted the service's force control to mobilise firefighters.

Crews have been based in a temporary location in Northam for the past 18 months during development work on the new station, based on the same site as the original one.

The new building includes community rooms so fire teams can work alongside youngsters from the inner city.

A Young Firefighters' Associ-ation will also be set up to give children a taste of the job and help teach safety awareness.

Hampshire Chief Fire Officer Malcolm Eastwood said: "We are delighted about this.

"This sort of thing is where we want to go in the future.

"It's right in the heart of a mixed community and as there isn't a lot of facilities here for people, they can use the ones we have at this station."

Cllr Kelly said: "The new station is much improved and firefighters will be more comfortable here. It's great to see them back here where they belong."