A CATAWBA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, FIRE DEPARTMENT is taking an aggressive approach to the increase of calls. 

The Sherrills Ford - Terrell Vol. FD has seen a rise in emergency calls of 20% annually and have now hired six full-time firefighters and three administrative people.

They are now promising a 24-hour, 7-day coverage from their station along with the usual response of its 60 volunteer members.

The Charlotte Observer has the STORY.
Sherrills Ford - Terrell FD WEBSITE.

Firegeezer notes:  While the article says they hired 6, the website states 16.  Also, neither tells how the FD is funded.  If anybody from Catawba County knows, please post a comment.  Thank you.

AS WE REPORTED HERE LAST WEEK, the Arlington, Massachusetts, Fire Department has begun operating from their new Station 3.  It has become infamous because of the Fire Chief’s decision to remove the sprinkler system from the plans because it takes up too much space and that they:  “….are strictly a life saving apparatus meant to control the fire, to help people escape a burning building…but the sprinklers themselves aren’t meant to put out fire.”

The dry day room.
Arlington Advocate photo

Our friends at the Arlington Advocate have come out with still another story on the new firehouse where they explain the ramifications of taking the sprinklers out of the final design.  It seems the basement level is still sealed off and unusable because the exit doors aren’t placed properly for an unsprinklered building.

And they have brought forward still one more reason why the sprinklers couldn’t be installed.  The architect claims that there isn’t enough “water pressure” to supply the sprinklers for this building of less than 7,500 sq. ft.  (jockey pump, anyone?…ed.).

But not all problems have been resolved.  The Town’s Building Committee has been having meetings since February trying to decide whether the station’s radio antenna should be mounted on the roof, the side of the building, or on a free-standing tower.  After 10 months of meetings, they’re still considering it.

Read the latest from the Advocate HERE.

THE ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, FIREHOUSE THAT WAS declared a “sprinkler-free zone” by the Fire Chief was finally given its occupancy permit on Monday.  The three (!) firefighters began operating from the station on Thursday.

You may recall the Firegeezer Morning Lineup column HERE reporting on Chief McEwen removing the sprinkler system from the plans because, among other things, it took too much space.

Now that they’re in the station, everybody is all smiles.  And while the taxpayers of Arlington will laud Chief McEwen for saving them $54,000, the rest of the world will always remember him for this piece of wisdom:

“What most people don’t understand is, sprinklers aren’t meant to put out the fire,” McEwen said. “They are strictly a life saving apparatus meant to control the fire, to help people escape a burning building…but the sprinklers themselves aren’t meant to put out fire, they are meant to control it to give people time to escape.”

The Advocate article from yesterday covering the station opening is HERE.

BACK IN 2002, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, VOTERS approved a $159 million bond issue to build new and upgrade other police and fire stations in the city.

One of those fire stations needing renovation is Fire Station #2, currently the oldest firehouse still being used by the FD.  It was built 60 years ago and expanded in the 1980’s.  It is also the city’s busiest fire station, running 4,500 calls annually.  But by waiting so long to begin some of the projects, the costs have increased by $6.8 million overall.

In order to be able to complete the modernizations, the Mayor has proposed reducing the spending levels in some projects, including Station #2.  Now instead of spending $9.5 million on #2, the city staff wants to get by with only $7.1 million.

Enter the city councilwoman who represents the district where the fire station is located.  Since it serves a largely-hispanic section of the city, she wants to get in the mud and play the race card in what is no doubt a grandstanding attempt to garner votes.  Never mind that the city is also building a brand new fire station in the same area and is nearly completed.

The mud-fight is just getting started and the San Jose Mercury News brings you up to speed with the latest HERE.

To view images of the station over the years, click on the thumbnails:

Photos courtesy Santa Clara County Fire Dept.
For more Station #2 history click HERE.

HARDLY A DAY GOES BY without learning about still another desperate scheme to fund the emergency services in UK.  For some reason the fire and ambulance departments are constantly unable to meet budget, but the citizens are already taxed to the max.  So this leads to various, nefarious plans to raise monies in other ways.

Today’s proposal comes from Wales where the South Wales Fire Authority wants to sell off all the land around one of their fire stations.  The Whitchurch station serves an area of 65,700 population along with three major hospitals, a university and some industrial areas.  But since they feel that all you really need is the station and not all that valuable land that it sits on, the fire officials want to sell it.

Whitchurch Fire Station

The citizens are alarmed, of course.  They believe that this is the precursor to closing the station altogether.

Read about this new citizen-government conflict in the South Wales Echo HERE.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service WEBSITE.

A MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KENTUCKY FIRE STATION suffered a major fire at 6 am this morning.  Shortly after returning to quarters after a working house fire during the night, the duty crew noticed some smoke in the ceiling area and discovered a fire going in the attic area of the building.

They managed to get all the equipment out of the firehouse and called for assistance.  There was sufficient damage in the roof area that they expect to have to rebuild the structure.

Lexington Channel 18 has the STORY and VIDEO.

THE LOTHIAN AND BORDERS FIRE BRIGADE in Scotland was supposed to make a decision on implementing what they call a Service Improvement Plan last Friday.

But the “Service Improvement” included shutting down two fire stations, curtailing night and weekend coverage at a third station, and eliminating 20 firefighter positions.

The “improvement” was put on hold for two weeks in order to consider a counter-proposal by the West Lothians town Council whose leader said:  “It makes no sense to me to cut the fire service here when this is an area with a growing population and a growing business community.”

The Scotsman reports the STORY.
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue WEBSITE.

A CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING ON THE foundations for a new firehouse accidentally started a brush fire Wednesday.  The new station is outside Salt Lake City, Utah and the workers were grinding rebar for the concrete foundation.  Sparks from the grinder flew over into some scrub area and quickly started a 29-acre brush fire that required 50 firefighters and two aircraft to control it.

Read the full story HERE.