Town of Ashford hopes new fire station will speed up emergency service response time
ASHFORD, Ala. (WDHN) — The town of Ashford will no longer have to worry about slower response times from emergency services and according to law officials, the town is more than excited.
“Everybody that I’ve talked to is tickled to death. They’re glad it’s there; the citizens are glad. The citizens have been looking forward to it, and they’ve been working for it,” says Ashford Fire Chief Jimmy Posey.
On Thursday, the town unveiled a new fire station in the industrial park, just south of the railroad tracks that run through the town.
The tracks have led to a slower response time for emergencies that happen on the south side of town.
Ashford Mayor, Carole Barfield, said that the slower response time can lead to a situation going from bad to worse.
“Sometimes we have stayed at the railroad track for a train to come by, for at least eight minutes,” says Barfield. “Sometimes that’s the difference in your house burning up, or not.”
Chief Posey says that the railroad tracks were the key driving point in building the new station.
“I know we had a house fire that was on the corner of the railroad tracks, and I sat there and watched it until the train cleared, it has impacted us tremendously,” Posey says.
This station started as an idea more than a decade ago and the town officially broke ground on the station just under two years ago, but city officials say that numerous things caused the delay of the grand opening
“Finding funding for the project was almost impossible to do, and other things got involved. In the city, other things come up that we really need. So, the fire station got put on the back burner,” says Barfield.
Chief Posey says that he and his crew have been actively taking calls for the past two weekends–and so far everything has been running smoothly.
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