Cumberland County joined the Gray’s Creek Volunteer Fire Department Station #18 and the Cumberland County Fire Chiefs’ Association this morning in celebrating the recently started construction on the department’s new station.
The event was held under the steel framing for the building, which sits on seven acres across from the current station at 7010 Fire Department Road. The new facility will be 16,000 square feet – more than three times the size of the existing 5,000 square-foot station. The Gray’s Creek Fire Department received a $2 million, 40-year loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development to finance the building. The new station is expected to be complete by March 2020.
“We have added on to our current station twice and now the area has just outgrown what we have there. Our board of directors has ‘future sight’ and they are building this fire station with the future in mind,” said Gray’s Creek Station 18 Chief Kevin Herndon.
“This facility has been in the making for the last 20 years and once completed, this station will meet all the current standards applicable to a fire protection facility. This fire station will enhance the fire services in all of Cumberland County,” said Cumberland County Fire Chiefs’ Association President Freddy Johnson Sr.
“People in the Gray’s Creek community have a tradition of service and Station 18 is a wonderful example. Our volunteer fire departments are vital to the safety and wellbeing of rural and unincorporated communities,” said Jeannette Council, chair of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners.
“The relationship that the fire service has with the county commissioners is a very close one and it will get closer as time goes on because things are changing,” said Marshall Faircloth, vice chair of the board of commissioners and the liaison to the fire departments. “The whole concept of the volunteer firefighter is in danger because of the nature of how people go about their daily lives now. You will see the fire service and the county working even more closely together as these problems become more entrenched and more difficult to solve.”
Some of Cumberland County’s volunteer fire departments face a shortage of members. Residents interested in serving their community by becoming a volunteer firefighter may learn more at volunteerFireNC.org or call 1-833-865-6227.