VIDEO: After ten years of planning and development, North Myrtle Beach broke ground on a new fire station and police substation Monday afternoon.
The North Myrtle Beach Fire Department hopes the new facility, which will sit behind the UPS building on Water Tower Road, will improve response times to the western areas of the city, including still-developing neighborhoods and businesses.
โWe know that as more people are moving in here, we see more calls back here. Medical calls, fire alarms, weโve had a couple of house fires back here,โ says North Myrtle Beach Fire Chief Billy Floyd.
Floyd says that the new station will dramatically reduce calls for Fire Station 5, which currently covers the new Station 7โs area as well as the Barefoot Resort area.
Opening the station will also require hiring about 27 people.
โItโs going to run a fire engineโฆa staffed ladder truck, so thatโll be the second staffed ladder truck in the city,โ says Floyd. โThere will also be a battalion chief. We keep one battalion chief on duty for the entire shift, but since our areaโs expanding, weโre going to add that second battalion chief to share that responsibility.โ
