CONWAY COUNTY, Ark. – The Blackwell-Kenwood Fire Department was still recovering after their roof collapsed in on itself during the winter storms that came through Arkansas in January.
Darren Bray, Conway County Fire Chief, described that half of the fire station was usable, while the other half was not because of the damage.
"The tanker, that was out of service for, I think it took us about a month to get that back in service. It had some damage to the cab," Bray said. "You don't realize just how much you take for granted what normal operations is until you're having to stand here and half your building's gone and try to plan and coordinate how you're going to get guys to respond from half of what you normally had while still being able to train when they're not responding and have those meetings."
Bray described what was being fixed at the station.
"Redoing all the walls, all the plumbing, the electrical, the way it's connected, we're redoing all that wall. Rebuilding all of our offices, all of our bay doors," Bray said.
Bray mentioned one of the hurdles in this process before getting the construction going was figuring out where to put their storm shelter; because according to Bray, you have to have storm rooms built internally inside for all fire stations.
"We worked with the State Fire Marshal's Office and our local county government to find the intent, what we could see for the intent for a volunteer service, and what we could do best for the community at large. So, we're actually going to be putting ours outside here, and it'll be a 12-man underground unit that'll be accessible," Bray said.
According to Bray, as long as everything went according to plan, the fire station should be complete and ready to go in about three months.
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