New fire station to improve coverage, reduce response time

Plans for a third staffed fire station serving the city of Chelsea have been finalized, and the city is seeking to put the project out to bid.

As of mid-June, Chelsea Fire and Rescue Chief Wayne Shirley had approved a design for Station 33, which will be located off of Shelby County 51 near U.S. 280. The building that will house the station will include three vehicle bays, six offices, a training and conference room area, an exercise room and a shelter downstairs. Upstairs, there will be six sleeping quarters, bathrooms and a day room.

This will be Chelsea’s first fire station with sleeping quarters upstairs, Shirley said, so there will also be a special structure to allow quick transportation from the second floor to the vehicle bay — a sliding board.

“[Fire] poles — that contributes to ankle injuries. People lose their grip coming down too fast, and that contributes to ankle injuries. A slide is a lot safer,” Shirley said.

The sliding board — which is essentially an adult-sized slide that can accommodate a fully grown adult in fire equipment — also has the added benefit of being a great thing to show the community during school visits, Shirley said.

The station will be staffed with two firefighters and will have a fire engine and a medical transport unit on site. Depending on if a call is a fire or medical emergency, the firefighters will hop on the appropriate vehicle and head to the scene, Shirley said. 

“That’s called cross staffing, and we’ll continue to do cross staffing until call volume and budget, until we can justify the cost of adding additional personnel to that station,” Shirley said. The station will have six bedrooms from the time it comes into use, however, so that it will be equipped to house more firefighters when that becomes necessary. It will also allow for additional staffing if there is a weather emergency, Shirley said.

An additional fire station has been discussed for the past few years in the city of Chelsea, and Shirley said it will help Chelsea Fire and Rescue better serve the community. This station will significantly improve response time to the Chelsea Park area. 

They would be able to respond to Chelsea Park Elementary in about 4 minutes, Shirley said as an example, rather than in 8 to 10 minutes as would be the case now.

“As we know, Chelsea is the fastest growing city in the state, or one of the fastest growing,” he said. “With that brings a greater demand on public safety needs. … We need additional stations to not only improve response times but to be available for multiple calls that come in at the same time.” 

As of mid-June, the city had not received an estimate for the project cost, but Shirley said once that was established, the project would go to bid. The council would then consider the bid, and if accepted, work could begin. 

The goal is to have the station up and running by the end of 2018, Shirley said, although a timeline has not been finalized.