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TOLEDO, Ohio — If you drive north on North Detroit Avenue, you'll likely pass a hidden building that you might not even notice at first. 

What goes on in that building is how first responders are able to get to you in an emergency.

"We're right around 125-thousand square feet," Lt. Craig Ellis, fire maintenance officer with Toledo Fire & Rescue Department, said. "We take up the better part of a city block."

This incognito hub of Toledo is an essential building for the city to keep running.

"We do the maintenance and repair for all the fire apparatus and equipment that we have on the fireside for the city of Toledo," Ellis said. "That includes 38 frontline fire apparatus, and 17 reserve rigs for a total of 55 pieces of fire equipment that we do here."

The shop is also home for maintenance on city vehicles and Toledo police cruisers.

They do it all, from repairing fire engines to stitching up gear, to installing police lights and even checking breathing equipment for firefighters.

The breathing equipment firefighters use is called a self-contained breathing apparatus, also known as a SCBA. Not only does it allow firefighters to breathe through smoke, it also has an alarm for when a firefighter is no longer moving. For example, if a firefighter is hurt in a structure fire, the alarm will sound and other first responders can figure out if they need help.

The gear gets a daily check in the field, but a technician will do a more in depth check for all 220 SCBAs and more than 500 face masks.

It is a trusted job that 77-year-old Carl Lerch has been doing for years.

"I check for things that they can't check for, like the first stage regulatory pressure or the second stage, whether it's functioning properly or not," Lerch said.

The whole shop runs with only 16 employees. Firefighters and other first responders are often in the shop though.

"The hardest part is just wearing the many hats that we have to wear," Ellis said.

"There's always a new laugh or something that comes up," Lerch said.

The building was a former beer distribution center and for three decades it's been a place of hard, but rewarding work.

"Everybody that works here, cares about what they're doing," Ellis said.

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