Voters in a small Hancock County town will head to the polls in February to decide on if the volunteer fire department should get a new $3.9 million station, BangorDailyNews.com reported.

A referendum vote in Orland is scheduled for February 1 to see if residents are interested in borrowing $4 million to replace the current aging station, which can barely fit the department’s fire trucks and has severe drainage issues, the report said.

Built in 1974, the station sits on a flat, low-lying lot that makes it prone to flooding and difficult to clean off engines, according to the report. It also lacks an exhaust system or washroom for the force’s approximately 25 firefighters to clean up before heading home.

A public meeting to go over the plan is scheduled at the town community center December 15.

The Bismarck Fire Department made a major upgrade to its fleet, KFYRTV.com reported.

This new, $1.4 million ladder truck replaces a 25-year-old vehicle which had reached the end of its useful life, the report said. A fire official said the new truck comes with safety upgrades as well.

The biggest addition, a 100-foot ladder which is on top of the truck. This will allow the firefighters to perform rescue operations and control blazes in high-rise buildings. A truck this size will also provide additional protection to both the firefighters and citizens.

The truck seats five firefighters and has a 300-gallon water tank to help suppress major fires, the report said. The fire department says they hope to have it fully equipped and running by the first of the new year.

City of Bartlesville firefighters are training this week on the use of the fire department’s newly purchased tower-ladder truck, approved by voters in the 2020 General Obligation Bond Election, the city said in a press release.

The truck will allow access to many of the city’s taller buildings and is a step forward in improving the department’s ISO rating — a score issued by the state’s Insurance Services Office based on how prepared the department is to protect the community from fires.

The score can mean lower insurance premiums for Bartlesville residents, Fire Chief David Topping said. The city currently holds an ISO rating of 2/2y, “which puts us in the top one percent in the state,” Topping said.

“The addition of this equipment to our arsenal will move us closer to a rating of 1, which is the highest score possible,” he said. “With a reach of 101 feet, this vehicle will give us more options and greater capabilities than we currently have in regards to high-rise operations,” he said.

The truck was purchased from low bidder Daco Fire Equipment for $1.3 million. Due to inflation and wiring supply costs, the vehicle is over budget by $246,687. The remaining funds will be taken from unallocated Half-cent Capital Improvement Project Sales Tax funds.

Inside the Magnolia Green Fire Station off Woolridge Road in Moseley (VA) leaders gathered to dedicate the facility, NBC12.com reported. The station opened in December, 2020, but the dedication ceremony was delayed due to COVID-19.

More than 22,000 residents live in the Magnolia Green district. It is one of the fastest-growing areas in Chesterfield, the report said.

The floor plan of the new station meets the needs of a more diverse workforce, the report said. There are individual sleeping rooms and it also allows the department to better manage fatigue among responders.

The station is a three-bay, one story with a mezzanine constructed in style to suit and fit into a residential community that will serve the Cosby, Moseley and Skinquarter areas of Chesterfield County. The station began serving on December 7, 2020.

The building also allows for expansion of operations down the line, by adding another bay or additional sleeping rooms, the report said.

Ben Anderson
The Times, Gainesville, Ga.
(TNS)

Dec. 1—Update: Hall County’s Marine Rescue Team will replace its dive team with an underwater drone that will be used to try to rescue and recover drowning victims.

Hall County Fire Chief Chris Armstrong said there will be few changes.

“The only difference is that rather than send a person down in dive gear to either do a rescue or recovery of a person under water, we’re using an underwater drone to do that instead,” Armstrong said.

That means the fire department will no longer have divers who are trained and equipped to jump in the water and rescue people who have gone underwater or recover people who have drowned.

Divers will be replaced by a $100,000 underwater drone that can be deployed in three minutes or less and reach depths of up to 305 meters, according to the department. The drone is equipped with a camera, a sonar system and a robotic arm that can grab onto drowning victims and tow them to the surface. In effect, divers will become drone operators.

The robot is expected to arrive in January, and Armstrong said they will spend the six months after that training firefighters to operate it, in time for Memorial Day. The fire department will also be purchasing a boat with a fire hose that is expected to cost around $650,000.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman B.J. Williams said they are not planning to make any changes to their Underwater Search and Rescue dive team.

Some people are worried about these changes, including Todd Jordan, an emergency physician at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center who says he and his wife are certified dive instructors who have been training the fire department’s dive team for the last 10 years.

In a post in the Lanier Lake Life Facebook group, he wrote, “If the Public Safety Divers respond to a boat fire and see burnt victims jump overboard, they cannot go under water after them. If there is a drowning, they will have to stand on the shore or stay on the boat without attempting to save a life. They will only be able to operate a robot. If they respond to a jumper on a bridge and see them jump, they cannot dive to save them. If they respond to a car off a bridge in ten feet of water with children trapped in car seats, they cannot help. Robots cannot enter a car to save a human child in a car seat. Robots cannot untangle themselves when they are trapped in fishing line and trees. It IS possible to save a person in this lake.”

He added: “As a citizen of Hall County, I find this very concerning. I feel that all the residents in North Georgia, who frequent Lake Lanier, should be aware of this potentially dangerous change and that they will no longer be protected by a Public Safety Dive Team.”

Jordan reiterated those concerns in an interview with The Times.

Armstrong said their divers haven’t saved a single drowning victim in the 20 years since the county’s Marine Rescue Team was founded. In the past five years, there have been 32 drownings, and the dive team has responded to 10 of them. They have recovered four bodies but saved zero lives.

Armstrong said he isn’t sure whether the underwater drone might have more success, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try.

“We’re still doing rescues,” he said. “We’re just changing the way we’re rescuing people.”

Lake Lanier is one of the most visited lakes with 12 million enjoying its waters annually.

In 2022, six people drowned in the lake.

The decision is also motivated by concerns about diver safety.

“One of the most risky things we do is diving in that lake,” Armstrong said. “If I spend