Wednesday, December 26, 2001
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Wednesday, December 26, 2001 |
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Firefighters move into new, safer digs By JOHN
MUNFORD
The Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services has moved into its newest fire station, which replaces a station off Ga. Highway 314 that was hand-built by volunteers. The new station, located off Hwy. 279, is more centrally located for the area, and it features room for expansion, said Capt. Pete Nelms. Besides Peachtree City and a section south of Fayetteville, the north side of the county is one of the more populated areas in the county, Nelms said. An emergency grant from the federal government paid for 75 percent of the $590,000 cost to build station 1. That's because the old "station 1" was located near a dam, and if that dam broke, it could severely affect the department's ability to respond to an emergency, Nelms said. In fact, the old station 1 would have flooding at times. Even though Fayette's fire force is rocketing into the future, it will figure a way to cling to its past. A bell used in the old days to rouse volunteer firefighters when they were needed will be preserved in some way, Nelms said. The new station 1, located near Austin Drive on Hwy.279, is certainly an improvement on the old station. It has a larger crew quarters area, with partitions between bunks so female members of the fire service have more privacy at night. The station also has a garage bay with doors at each end so the trucks and ambulances can be pulled straight through, instead of having to back in and risk damage to the vehicles, Nelms said. The station, which was designed with assistance from firefighters themselves, features the fire trucks and ambulances in a central bay with the crew quarters on one side and the office/kitchen/day room on the other side. That allows emergency personnel to get to their apparatus quicker than if the vehicle bay was on the end of the building, Nelms said. And of course, when responding to an emergency even those few shaved seconds can count. There's also a small fitness room with conditioning equipment such as a treadmill and strength training machine to help the firefighters stay in shape, Nelms said. The new station also has uses low-maintenance materials to save costs. And the same floor plan, with a few minor modifications, will be used for the county's next three fire stations, one of which is already underway. Station 10 on Seay Road is about 70 percent complete, Nelms said. Station 5 on Hwy. 85 south will later be built, along with station 7 at the intersection of Hampton Road and Anna Lane. In fact, to help save money in the long run, the station staff decided to buy more sturdy furniture and put it together themselves. The station itself is projected to last between 30 and 50 years, Nelms said. "Everyone in the fire department greatly appreciated the support of our board of commissioners to have something like this built so they can do their job," Nelms said.
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