2 days ago
Spring Hill's new fire station approaches completion as population grows
SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — Construction is more than halfway done for Fire Station No. 4 in Spring Hill, known as the Mitchell Earwood Memorial Station. According to the city, the building will be complete and operational by November.
The station is named in honor of Mitchell Earwood, a former Spring Hill firefighter who lost his life in a weather-related incident in 2020.
'Seeing it come to fruition at this time, with the growth of the city itself, is going to absolutely reduce response times in this area,' Spring Hill Fire Chief Graig Temple told News 2. 'We're expecting that, within the first month, we're going to see at least a 25% reduction in response times immediately as soon as the station is opened.'
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Temple said the station's more centralized location will allow for quicker deployments around Spring Hill.
'The city has been behind with needing this station for several years, and we're not going to stop there, obviously. I mean, there's a definite need for a fifth and sixth station because of the city's growth,' Temple added.
Based on the city's estimates, about 65,000 people currently live in Spring Hill, which is up from 50,687 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census.
Temple said the Spring Hill Fire Department's call volume has been steadily rising about 4% to 7% per year.
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'As the call volume increases, it actually draws our resources apart because they're handling other emergencies, so having this station here centrally located within the city allows us to go in any direction very, very quickly,' Temple explained.
According to Temple, the department's current average response time is 7.5 minutes, but the goal is to hit the 6-minute mark.
Officials said the Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to approve a contract with Chris Woods Construction Company for the new fire station in March 2024. The board approved a total of $10.5 million for the project in July 2024, just a few weeks before city, county, and state leaders gathered for the groundbreaking.
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