NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Fire Chief Steven Beer said that the one thing this dry spring has helped to do is allow work on the North Main fire station to stay on schedule.
"We're definitely on schedule, I would imagine sometime the end of May," Beer said. "Driving by there, it looked like they were going to pour another section of concrete. That's probably one of the only positive things out of this whole thing. With the dry weather, the concrete guys are able to pour every single day, basically up there, form or pour. We're still on track. Tentative, I think we're looking at sometime in early June to move in."
There's also supposed to be a new piece of apparatus coming later this spring, as well.
"We're replacing a very old ladder truck, that's scheduled to be delivered in June," Beer said. "That will coincide with that new station. We're bringing the ladder truck right now up from Halstead on 11th. When you look at the data, that station up at 20th and Main right now is our busiest fire station in the city of Hutchinson."
Hutchinson Fire is responding to more emergencies than they used to.
"Over the last five years, our call volume is up 35%," Beer said. "When you look at the numbers, we went from like 4600 calls to just around 7000 calls here last year."
Beer said his organization has become data driven and all about response times. This is true to the point that if a unit is out on a call or for lunch or for some other reason is elsewhere in town and has not yet returned to the station and becomes available to where their GPS puts them closest to a call, they will be sent there first and other supporting vehicles will come to them rather than dispatching from even the closest station in a situation where seconds can make a difference.
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