Fire chief contemplating another station, more crews following busy weekend

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - After responding to nearly 30 calls in 24 hours, the Jonesboro Fire Department is contemplating another station and more employees.

Chief Marty Hamrick says that fires aren’t something you can predict, but there are certain times when they see more calls.

“Definitely when it has been warm, people have been out doing things, and it seems a lot cooler, we get more calls simply because people are trying to stay warm,” Hamrick said.

The department responded to 29 calls on Sunday, leaving crews little time to rest.

While many were false alarms, that still left crews spread thin. In the case of the first structure fire Sunday, they couldn’t get to the scene as fast as they would’ve liked.

“They never really get a good rest period in between those structure fires, and really the only thing we can do to improve that is to add fire stations in the city,” Hamrick said.

Recently steps have been taken to possibly add an eighth fire station in town which Hamrick hopes to see become a reality sooner rather than later.

“We have just identified where our needs are in the city, we did a GIS study to determine the best location to put a new fire station in the future,” Hamrick said.

He added that Sunday’s calls show how badly they need another station and more employees.

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