The City of Mullens has secured more than one-point-five million dollars to build a new fire station, replacing its current flood-prone facility.
Fire Chief Justin England says the station’s location puts firefighters on edge whenever it rains or snow begins to melt.
“Any time it starts to rain or snow starts to melt, we get a little nervous because we don’t know from day to day if we’re going to be operating, or just trying to salvage what’s left of us,” England said.
The fire station, built in 1954, sits behind Rebel Smokehouse in downtown Mullens, directly in the Slab Fork floodway. Flooding has repeatedly threatened operations, including 11 feet of water during the 2001 floods and three feet of water entering the building just last month.
Because of the risk, England says firefighters often move equipment to the second floor and relocate trucks to the intersection of Routes 16 and 54 east of downtown to ensure they can still respond to emergencies.
City Manager Krystal Wallace credited England for securing the funding for a replacement station to be built near Burke and Herbert Bank.
“Our fire chief, Justin England, has worked very, very hard to obtain this funding,” Wallace said.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito secured one-point-five million dollars for the project through federal appropriations, while the West Virginia Legislature added another seventy-five thousand dollars with support from Senators Brian Helton and Roland Roberts.
England says with federal and state funds, along with insurance money for lost equipment, the city has raised about one-point-seven million dollars so far. He says the next step is hiring an architect to design the new station and determine whether additional funding will be needed.