Messages - Ocean City Vol. Fire Co.

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Ocean City Volunteer
Fire Company
P.O. Box 27
1409 Philadelphia Ave.
Ocean City, MD 21842

Phone: 410.289.4346
Fax: 410.289.8421

Important Message

Ground Breaking For New Fire Station

From Delmarvanow.com

No shovels here, as volunteer firefighters and local officials each used a fireman's ax to break ground at the site of a new firehouse. It's a facility for which volunteers have spent a decade raising their own money to build.

"We're extremely proud to have you here today, to be able to break ground on this new station," Jay Jester, president of the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company said, to a gathering of elected officials and fire department members.

"To take care of this community in West Ocean City, also to take care of the community in Ocean City as we've done for over a century. It's quite an undertaking," he said.

Volunteers raised $100,000 a year for more than nine years to replace the Keyser Point Road firehouse, known as Station 5, Jester said. They will apply about that much to the building, and a $1.5 million loan from the Bank of Ocean City will fund the rest.

Jester, a 19-year veteran of the volunteers, said the new building will be what a firehouse should be.

"It's a place you're going to go, you're going to spend a lot of time, just like your home," he said. "Anything you would need, all the creature comforts, are part of this new building. Everything we would need to have a nice, working facility, where we didn't have that before."

While the Worcester County Commissioners do give annual grants to the volunteers, none of those funds specifically were earmarked for the project. Ocean City did not give cash for the project either, but the town worked with the volunteers to acquire property immediately south of Station 5. The town also made sure the property had enough wastewater capacity.

The old station, built in 1974, was demolished in May. With their West Ocean City facility now down to a dirt-covered lot, temporary homes have been found for the volunteers' apparatuses.

Equipment to be moved includes two engines, two tankers, a ladder truck, an air unit and an ambulance. Ocean City's Public Works Department will allow some equipment to be moved to a nearby storage yard. The rest will go into a warehouse owned by the Trimper family, where they normally store rides in the winter.

Set on 1.5 acres, the new firehouse will have five drive-through bays, three more than the old building. It will have a dormitory, training areas, offices for senior staff, a sitting room, a gear room, an exercise room and a kitchen. Also, it will be much more efficient to heat and cool than the old facility.

Photo of the Day

Photo By: David Coleman

Calls for Service

August 2010

Structure Fires		10
Vehicle Accidents		64
Automatic Alarms		75
Landing Zones		8
Electrical Hazard		3
Smoke Investigations		10
Other		29
Total Alarms	YTD	1190
	2009	1273
	2008	1409
	2007	1481

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