New station part of expansion

Railroad tracks divide Grovetown.

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And now, the Grovetown Department of Public Safety has firefighters and medical personnel stationed on both sides of the tracks with the recent opening of a second fire station.

Chief Al Robinson said fire station No. 2, next to the Grovetown Senior Center on West Robinson Avenue, is now manned with firefighters and first responders.

"We wanted to staff that station on that (west) side of the railroad tracks because of the train," Robinson said. "This is coverage on both sides of the tracks."

The station was the city's main fire station before the new Public Safety building was constructed on East Robinson Avenue in 1994.

Robinson said even though the city's firefighting personnel and equipment were located solely east of the tracks, there was supplemental manpower from Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue and ways under and around the tracks to respond to emergency needs on the west side of the city.

"We wanted another station on that side of the tracks for the growth, naturally," he said. "We had ways to protect their (residents') property even though the tracks are there and we are on this (east) side of the tracks. It just makes it a little bit easier for us to get there."

Robinson said he feels more comfortable having medical first responders next door to the senior center. The station currently houses a fire engine, tanker truck, a backup truck and an antique fire engine built in 1946.

Robinson said the station includes four vehicle bays, a kitchen and dining area, a living area, bathroom and bedroom.

Robinson said staffing the city's second fire station is the beginning of an expansion of the city's fire service.

"The reason we opened it, got it going, was so it would be a start," Robinson said. "The plan is to build another station on that side of the railroad tracks eventually, maybe in the Harlem-Grovetown Road area."