Berkeley County fire department working to meet growth needs

BERKELEY CO., S.C. (WCBD)- We all know how much the Lowcountry is growing, especially the Berkeley County area.

Due to that growth, some fire departments are seeing a greater need for more employees

“The amount of expansion of this area, the development of this area is really calling for more resources,” Deputy Chief of the Central Berkeley Fire Department, Justin Miles-Miller said.

Meeting that need, is the Central Berkeley Fire and EMS Department.

“We’re looking at hiring 9 full-time career fire fighters,” Assistant Fire Chief Colt Roy said.

This is all thanks to a 2 million dollar grant the department received, to use over three years.

These hires are making history at the department.

“One of the things that’s so exciting about this, is this a lot of firsts for our fire department,” Roy said.

This is the first time the Central Berkeley fire station will have full-time fire fighters, they’ve been leaning on part-time and volunteer fire fighters.

Roy says not only will their station benefit, but most importantly the community will.

“Having additional personnel immediately able to respond for emergencies, that is going to promote a safer environment for all of our people,” Roy said.

Station leaders saying they expect their services to become more efficient and their response time to decrease.

Miles-Miller said, “It will certainly branch out our staffing across the districts, both in the central Berkeley district of 6, which is Whitesville area and district 12 which is Cross area.”

The Central Berkeley fire department says they’re going to start accepting applications in October.