The fire department has doubled in size, at least in terms of its physical space.
City officials cut the ribbon on the community's second fire station on Thursday. They gave a commitment to public safety as priority one.
Fulton had outgrown its single firehouse, at least as far as the insurance industry was concerned.
“They had told us that we would no longer be able to keep our good rating of 4 unless we had another station,” Fire Chief Dean Buffington said.
Fulton's Mayor LeRoy Benton said the standard for getting to a fire was five minutes. Fulton's response time was getting rather marginal.
So the city committed to a second firehouse on the south side. To get the federal grants they needed for the project, Fulton officials promised to make the firehouse “LEED” certified.
“LEED standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. I thought I did some homework on that prior to construction and I quickly learned I didn't do enough,” Buffington said.
Energy Efficiency features include Pervious Pavement and a system to recover rain water for use in firefighter training. Environmental features include a charging station for battery-powered vehicles and an exhaust recovery system in the truck bays. Wood furniture build by inmates in the Missouri Department of Corrections helped to cut costs. More than half of the $2.2 million price tag for the firehouse was covered by federal stimulus dollars.
“It's nice to see some of those dollars that we send to the federal government coming back to our community,” Rep. Jeanie Riddle said.
The city of Fulton employs just over a dozen full-time firefighters.
The mayor says there are no immediate plans to expand, and the existing staff will be divided between the two firehouses.
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