Greenwood County officials open Wilbanks EMS-fire station
With a fully equipped kitchen, three laundry machines and private bedrooms, the new Wilbanks EMS-Fire station has all the amenities emergency staff could need.
That’s not what excited County Fire Chief Steve Holmes during the station’s grand opening Thursday, however. This station is about to be one of the county’s busiest. Built at 1610 Highway 72/221, it’s nestled between two fire districts that each get about 1,900 calls each year.
“That station is going to be within five miles of 75 percent of my calls, and that’s a hard figure to imagine being true as big as Greenwood County is,” Holmes said.
The Wilbanks station is the new home for the Medic One ambulance unit as well as a fire engine. It’s centralized location should shave five minutes off response times to medical calls in the area, said EMS Director Derek Oliver.
“This station actually fills a very vital role in the county and community when you’re talking about response times and you’re looking at both EMS and the fire side,” he said. “We did build it with the future in mind. It is able to mirror what this side of the building looks like on the opposite side, so that in the event we have to increase staffing, we can build off that end of the building.”
The bay is large enough to house two EMS and fire units each in its bay, although it only holds one of each right now. The bay features a laundry area, and inside the station there’s a kitchen, restroom and multiple private bedrooms, as well as office space.
The staff that will work that station isn’t likely to spend a lot of downtime there, however.
“Young firefighters love to answer calls, and this is going to be a busy station,” Holmes said. “The thing I like most about this station myself, it’s the first fire station in the county that has a fire sprinkler system in the station. As a proponent of fire safety, I’m all the time encouraging — or making people, by code — put a sprinkler system in.”
The station is in County Councilwoman Melissa Spencer’s district, but she wasn’t able to attend the grand opening because of illness. Council Chairman Chuck Moates said the Wilbanks station was paid for using county operating funds, and joins the six stations built using Capital Project Sales Tax funds. These include the refurbished Medic 30 EMS station, which had a fire station bay built and connected to it, making the Wilbanks station the county’s second joint EMS-fire station.
Moates said its location makes it a prime spot for the firefighters to assist with any calls they’re needed for within city limits, as well. With each of the new stations built and being built, Holmes said by early next year 99% of homes and businesses in Greenwood County will be within five mils of a station — a metric required by the Insurance Services Office, which rates fire services for insurance purposes.
“This station represents yet another step in improving coordination and collaboration between the city of Greenwood and the Greenwood County Fire Service,” Moates said. “I hope and pray that one day we can see a unified county fire service for all of Greenwood County.”
State Rep. Anne Parks said the station represents a progressive step forward for Greenwood, and Councilwoman Edith Childs said former Councilman Gonza Bryant wanted a fire station there. Though he’s no longer on council, she said the project came through in the end.
State Rep. John McCravy said the station saves on people’s insurance rates and helps with economic development because investing companies will know Greenwood invests in its safety infrastructure.
“But more than all that, this is going to save lives for many years to come,” McCravy said. “It’s a great building, these are great trucks, but the real fire stations are the people.”
Originally Published by Index-Journal on: Oct 29, 2021
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com