WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | New Chief Revamps Port Wentworth Fire Department
Member Center:
Chief Greg Long
A new chief is breathing new life into the Port Wentworth Fire Department. It may be hard to believe, but a fire on Commonwealth Avenue earlier this month was the first fire Port Wentworth firefighters have responded to in years. They had trucks, they had a few volunteers, but little to no organization.
That was then, this is now. A couple of months ago, Chief Greg Long took over. "It means they can rest assured and feel a little safer knowing that fire protection is here, it's here to stay and it's going to continue to get better," he said.
Chief Long has one paid firefighter, who is in charge of keeping the trucks, the gear and all the hoses in tip-top shape. There's also a list of ten volunteers he can call upon. "By us getting on the scene a lot quicker, if more help is needed, we speed up the response by being able to request assistance from Garden City and Pooler," he said.
He is forming agreements with Garden City and Pooler so they will automatically respond and help with fires, rescues and wrecks in Port Wentworth. It still takes time for them to get on the scene and the number of people who live and pass through Port Wentworth is growing and growing.
Chief Long told us, "When you have homes under construction, when you have a lot of traffic in and out and all these warehouses coming, you have the population that is already in place plus constantly growing every day, their doing a building permit every day on new houses. We have to provide a level of service from start to finish and you can't play catch-up on that."
Chief Long says his ultimate goal is to have 20 full-time, paid firefighters. The first step is to have enough firefighters to service calls around the clock and beef up the volunteer force.
For an application to volunteer, visit the city's site at:
http://www.cityofportwentworth.com/forms.htm
Reported by: Michelle Paynter, mpaynter@wtoc.com
