Miniart has come up with a new fire station kit, which I assume is generically European. It is 1/72 scale, so I cannot use it in my intended 1962 diorama, but would a fire station as depicted still be too old-fashioned for 1962 Eastern Europe? Also I wonder what it would look like inside, when you have open doors (and did old-time "swing-open" doors still exist in that era)?

From my limited knowledge on the subject I think that that firestation can be used in a lot of settings through a lot of ages in a lot of countries. As far as I know these type of stations were not changed untill the fireengines became to large to fit in the garage. In the area where I live alone I know of 4 firestations that are at least 90 years old and of 2 of them the firedepartment moved quite recently to a newer more modern location.

Certainly in the UK we have one old london fire station that had wooden swing doors well in to the 1980s

In germany the rule was and is "if it works - do not change it". The reason you find a lot of new stations when you search "Feuerwache" is that many where destroyed in WWII and those on the small villages only came into existence in the 1970s or later.

But some are still there like this one with the brickwork plastered over

An image of the 1962 Feuerwache of the town of Giessen.
http://www.giessen.de/media/custom/640_77_1_g.JPG?1264581100.url

Thanks for the heads up. The reason I thought of the fire station, besides seeing MiniArt's ad, was I wanted to depict something that would be normally have some activity 24 hours a day be idle. The exact location of my intended diorama is intended to be somewhat vague.