IL Fire Dept. Opens Second Station

PLEASANT PLAINS – The Pleasant Plains Fire Department has opened a new substation at Farmingdale Road and Illinois 125 to better serve the growing number of families moving into the area.

Chief Bob Schafer said the new station will allow the volunteer firefighters to have a quicker response time in the area. The department will continue to operate its main fire station in Pleasant Plains.

“Our district isn’t growing in size, but our population is shifting,” Schafer said. “Originally, when the fire department was started in Pleasant Plains, the major population was in Pleasant Plans. We’ve gotten a lot of influx from Springfield, people moving out closer to Plains, and our population has shifted. We need to take care of our people in this area. We don’t want to leave them out.”

On Sunday, an open house was held to give people a look at the new station. Schafer said the new station is open, and they are ready to start running calls from the facility.

The new station was built at a cost of about $200,000 and has four vehicle bays. Initially, it will house three vehicles: an engine, a rescue truck and a brush truck. The engine, also called a pumper because it pumps water, was purchased used for $70,000 and the rescue truck was purchased used for $50,000.

Schafer said the new station was built without a tax increase.

The ground for the new station was donated by the Bunn-O-Matic Corp. There are volunteer firefighters who live near the station who will be able to take advantage of its strategic location, Schafer said.

Capt. Kirsten Davin of the Pleasant Plains Fire Department said there has been a lot of residential development along Farmingdale Road, south of Illinois 125. The department’s coverage area extends to South Farmingdale Road, just north of Old Jacksonville Road.

That area on South Farmingdale Road near the termination of the department’s coverage area is about a 15-minute drive for fire trucks coming from the station in Pleasant Plains.

In December 2011, a pole barn on South Farmingdale Road used by Fraase Excavating caught on fire. Davin lived nearby and drive directly to the scene but had to wait for the fire engines to arrive from Pleasant Plains. No one was in physical danger from the fire, but Davin had to wait with the family as the fire consumed the barn and destroyed their possessions.

“It was the worst feeling to stand there and watch the fire go through the building,” Davin said. “We just stood there and said they were coming. You felt horrible. It wasn’t the fault of our guys. It’s just that geographically, that’s the way it was.”

- Because of the fire, a conversation was started about the possibility of building a new station to serve the southern portion of the Pleasant Plains Fire District.

Davin estimated that if they were called today to the Fraase property, equipment from the new station could cut ten minutes from the trip. When it comes to fighting a fire or running an emergency medical call, 10 minutes could make a world of difference.

“If you have somebody who is not breathing and has no heart rate, and you have somebody doing CPR, 10 minutes is a long time. It can definitely make a difference,” Davin said.

–Contact John Reynolds: john.reynolds@sj-r.com, 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.

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