By Zach Solon | March 24, 2021 at 7:04 PM EDT – Updated March 24 at 11:42 PM
LELAND, N.C. (WECT) – A new fire station is coming to the town of Leland with hopes to better improve the fire department’s ability to combat fires and, in the long run, save taxpayers’ money.
The new station, Station 53, will be located along Old Lanvale Road. Construction is expected to be completed later this summer. Leland Fire Chief Chris Langlois highlights the benefits of adding a new station.
“There’s going to be three main benefits,” Langlois said. “Number one: faster response times. Number two: a more effective number of firefighters responding to fires; and, number three: helping to save our residents’ and taxpayers’ money.”
The addition of a third station for the department will cut down travel time to scenes nearly in half, down to about four minutes per incident. This is a crucial change that, for 9-1-1 callers, could be the difference between life and death.
“The quicker we can get to someone’s fire and the quicker we can get to someone’s medical emergency — the seconds and minutes mean life,” said Langlois. “So, the faster we can get there the more effective we can be.”
Leland’s new fire station will be staffed by nine new full-time employees. The department plans to use its volunteers as a supplement for staff when necessary.
“Our volunteers, the way we utilize them is that they will work 24 hours a month,” said Langlois. “So, they will come in and staff one of our apparatus’ for six- or 12- or 24-hour shifts, so they supplement our staffing.”
Langlois says residents could eventually save money because he hopes the new station will help the department to increase its fire insurance rating, which could then lower insurance premiums for Leland taxpayers.
Along with the new station, another station on Village Road, Station 51, is being relocated to Highway 74. The department is working on creating revised response districts to better serve its residents.
“It simply means that we’re getting better. We’re going to get better from where we are now, what we’re doing right now, and we’re going to try to make that even better,” said Langlois.
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