With the snip of a long red ribbon, the new $8.3 million Oak Bluffs fire station officially opened for business Tuesday.

Fire and EMS chief John Rose and selectman Michael Santoro wielded scissors for the event.

Nearly 20,000 square feet of space includes a training room, emergency operations center, decontamination room, sleeping quarters, a secure medical supply room, records storage, kitchen, a lounge with easy chairs complete with the department patch, and enough space for all of the town’s fire trucks, ambulances, and support vehicles.

“This event celebrates a milestone for the Oak Bluffs fire and EMS department, and the town of Oak Bluffs,” said Chief Rose, as he outlined some of the building features.

“In our old building, we were unable to hold professional training classes,” Mr. Rose said. “We had to pull out the apparatus and put down blankets on the floor to be able to hold those courses. In this building now, we have a sophisticated state-of-the art training room.”

He said firefighters returning from a structure fire, and medics returning from an ambulance run, will now be able to use a secure room to safely decontaminate.

“In the old building we never had the ability to decontaminate our equipment or ourselves. That’s a huge bonus to all of us here.”

Also on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony was Walter Vail, the selectmen’s representative to the fire station building committee, selectmen Kathy Burton and Gail Barmakian, architects Antonia Kenny and John Keenan, and many of the firefighters and EMS medics who will work in the new building.