Charleston, SC - A gift from the government, the St. Paul fire district lands a one and a half million dollar grant to build a new station.

The sound of fire trucks destine for a new spot in Hollywood/Edisto area. Station 7 will be built on highway 174, place lacking coverage for too long. It’s welcome news for Mary Brown, a volunteer at Mt. Horr church down the road from the new fire house.

“Especially for this church, we feel real good about it, just wondering when they will get it going,” said Brown.

St. Paul fire chief Doc Matthews is the man pushing for expansion. There are six stations in a district that is 465 square miles, but back-up for Edisto Island is 16 minutes away. With very few hydrants in the area, back-up is necessary in nearly every situation.

“We have to use our tankers to supply any type of firefighting effort, back up means water and water saves lives,” said Chief Matthews.

The stimulus package provided the chance to fix the problem. Five months ago, Officer Charles Riddle wrote up the grant request, found the architect, and put the plans together to make sure the project is shovel ready.

“Being out here in the Hollywood, Meggett area, we are always on the short end of the stick so to speak, but now we have the extra funding to help the people in our district,” said Riddle.

The new station here will obviously cut down on response time. That is also good news for homeowners in this area. But it could cut their homeowners insurance in half with the addition of the new station.

The station is expected to be built by the end of 2010. The department will also hire nine new firefighters.

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