Tri Community Volunteer Fire Department

After annually of construction and four several years of preparation, facility 3 of this Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department launched the doors to its brand-new facility in Apison during a grand opening ceremony Nov. 3.

The $2.3 million project is yet another testament on quick growth happening within the East Hamilton area. Given that county has exploded within the last few years, therefore has the range calls the volunteer fire department's five stations have obtained.

In 2007, the Tri-Community division obtained 1, 127 disaster calls. By 2011, that number had hopped to 2, 143, according to the Tennessee Fire Prevention Division of the division of Commerce and Insurance. In 2010, Tri-Community Fire Chief Duane Pitts estimates the division will get about 2, 400 phone calls.

"This section is giving an answer to progressively calls constantly, " he added.

So that you can accommodate that boost, facility 3 had a need to increase its solutions, and.

"Our requirements were a whole lot higher so we would have to be able to have significantly more gear and much more folks at section, " Pitts stated.

Even though the past station just had space for a fire-engine and a ladder truck, the latest center can also be in a position to hold a health first response vehicle and a pumper tanker, including two to four extra apparatus, dependent on size.

The old station, which presently sits beside the brand-new building on Park destination, will not be abandoned, Pitts stated. Instead, it's going to be utilized as a maintenance facility for apparatus repair works.

Another improvement in the brand new place could be the liveable space. The earlier place's living quarters had enough room for just two unpaid firefighters to call home in the section full-time. This new facility can house six live-in volunteers — which Pitts stated will significantly influence response times.

"with an increase of men and women residing right here [at the station], there is certainly a better potential for individuals being here whenever a call is available in, " he explained.

The six live-in firefighters won't be the only real ones gearing up if the telephone call comes. The live-in system functions as a magnet for volunteers, said Pitts, meaning the greater individuals forever situated at section, the greater amount of neighborhood volunteers will likely to be willing to spend time hanging out your website.

"[a] volunteer doesn't want is the only person coming into the place being here independently, " Pitts stated. "they wish to be with a group, and when the phone call comes in, they are able to respond as friends."

And with the brand new volunteer location able to hold ten to fifteen people — a marked improvement across four to five men and women the old station's time area was able to accommodate — the station is longing for an increase of volunteers, and all sorts of of those cannot even have becoming firefighters.

With half the Tri-Community department's phone calls being medical-related, Pitts and fellow officials aspire to place a more powerful emphasis on building non-firefighting medical reaction groups to relieve the firefighters. The station has also a number of non-firefighting civil positions for community members seeking to get involved.