Forsyth County officials broke ground Friday for a new fire station designed to improve service and response times in the heavily-populated southeast Forsyth area.

The new four-stall Station Six will be just off Peachtree Parkway on Brookwood Road and is expected to be complete in 12 to 14 months. Fire Chief Danny Bowman said the area is served now by Fire Station 10, which is some miles away. It's the first new station that's not a replacement to be built in-county since 1999.

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Greenville Fire Department has purchased 100 new handheld radios, new mobile units for all of the firetrucks and command staff vehicles and base station radios for all of the stations and the fire dispatch center thanks to a $245,000 Assistance to Firefighters grant.

Fire Chief Ruben Brown said there was a definite need for new radios. Firefighters had been using radios that were surplus after the 1996 Olympics.

Brown added that the previous equipment was "not durable and not really fire department capable."

Brown said the new radios are Mississippi Wireless Information Network capable, the state communication system the entire county plans to upgrade to within the next two years.

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