By Andrew Harp
The Evening News and the Tribune
SELLERSBURG, Ind. — Tri-Township Fire & Rescue has fully staffed their fire station in Memphis.
Chief Amir Mousavi said the station has been there for at least three decades, but has never been fully staffed until now.
In 2019, once the fire district created the fire department and moved away from contracting with a private company, they made a goal to fully staff all three fire stations they operate.
Mousavi determined that this would be the second station they’d fully staff considering its distance from their Sellersburg location, that’s also fully staffed, which is around a 10-mile stretch.
Mousavi said they also raised property taxes about two years ago in order to pay for developments like this one.
“Everybody was supportive of it because they understood our plan,” he said.
Mousavi said they just finished running a 20-week fire academy, the second one they had ever done, with about seven people who were able to complete it. They became firefighter 1 and 2 certified, and were also made EMTs. They will also begin the final phase of the academy in September, which is advanced EMT training.
The Memphis station, starting on June 1, will have up to five people there at all times, although it may be less depending on what’s going on, along with a fire truck and ambulance. He said they have already seen decreased response times to the Memphis area.
He said there was a call on Wednesday in Henryville on a car crash with an injury off of Ind. 160. Their EMS vehicle got there in five minutes.
The area is also near Interstate 65, with Memphis containing a particularly busy truck stop in which Mousavi said they regularly make runs to.
Mousavi also said that the station will be assisting with the Monroe Fire Department on all structure fires or any other major incidents.
“We’ll be able to assist a lot faster with a lot more manpower, immediately,” he said.
MTFD Chief Mark Furnish said the department is mostly volunteers with two paid staff members working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week.
He said the department has always had an automatic aid agreement with them concerning structure fires. He said they do work often together.
Furnish said that a fire engine will now six minutes from the Memphis station to their area instead of at the Sellersburg station which is several minutes away.
“Every minute counts,” he said.
Furnish said that while the county does have a contracted EMS service, if they are tied up, then TriTownship can respond if need be.
“I hope that nobody will use it, but when there is a need for it, that’s what it is for,” Mousavi said.
Mousavi said a volunteer department responds to calls when possible, but it is different than a fully staffed fire station containing workers who are trained and ready to respond.
“That’s a huge difference when the staff is fully trained, fully equipped and they’re sitting in the station waiting for that call to come in,” he said.
He said the department takes about 3,000 emergency calls in their area, which is seven to eight calls a day on average.
“Our areas are vastly growing with subdivisions,” Furnish said.
Considering Senate Bill 1, which is recent state legislation that aims to rearrange property tax funding prompting criticism from local municipalities who say they be losing funding, Mousavi said this could interfere with their goal to staff the station in Bennettsville within a year.
“We’re working on that to have a better understanding of how this will impact us,” he said.
Mousavi said they have applied for federal grants that could help to hire additional staff members.
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