Danville Fire Chief Don McMasters says a consulting firm that has been studying the city’s fire stations may have its preliminary findings done next month….
{AUDIO: ‘’It’s looking at the locations of the stations in the city, as well as the functionality for a legitimate modern day fire station as far as the functionality of the buildings. Are they big enough? Are they ADA compliant? Do they have plenty of cleaning facilities in them for all the personnel, so forth.’’}
Chief McMasters was asked whether he thinks Danville will need a fourth station in light of the new development on the city’s east side…
{AUDIO: ‘’You know, its speculation. But with the new casino coming in out on Eastgate, and all the stuff that has in the last eight to ten years increased substantially out on Eastgate – as well as there’s more stuff going out there besides the casino right now. It’s a possibility that there may be a necessity for them to say yow – we need to either relocate a station closer to that direction or add a fourth station in that direction. There’s a possibility of that – yes.’’}
Currently the closest Danville fire station to the new FedEx Distribution Center and the new Golden Nugget Casino is the Griffin Street station.
And Chief McMasters believes that in addition to those new facilities opening early next year…other new businesses will likely follow them.
Meanwhile, Chief McMasters says it is not just citizens who are being impacted by work on multiple local railroad crossings. He says temporarily closed crossings have also been affecting responses for emergency vehicles. But the Chief told members of the Public Services Committee of the Danville City Council Tuesday evening that his department has adjusted…
{AUDIO – ‘’When we go to an alarm – in most cases we’ve got vehicles coming from three different directions. So, for instance, on a call that we just had just a couple days ago, what would normally be the closest unit getting there had to veer around one of the blocked train tracks, and (when it) got to open train tracks that there happened to be a train on. So the (fire) engine that was coming from the other direction was able to get to get to that call in a timely fashion and take it over, even though it weren’t necessarily the closest one to the scene.’’}
Crews from the Norfolk Southern Railroad have been repairing multiple crossings in Danville.
