Orange County recently celebrated the opening of its first purpose-built EMS facility. Located in Efland, the new station plans to improve both crew efficiency and the comfort of emergency medical service providers.
On June 18, Orange County EMS providers, elected officials, and community members gathered at the completed EMS Station 4 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. EMS Division Chief Kim Woodward opened the event by thanking the designers, contractors, and county staff involved in the three-year building process for the new station and medical examiner’s office.
“We couldn’t have done this without this amazing team,” Woodward said. “It takes a village to build a station as beautiful as this. It takes support from our elected officials and our county manager.”
Orange County’s new EMS Station 4, located in Efland.
The facility is a significant upgrade from what the county has been using as a station for four decades. As the county’s first EMS station, Orange County EMS Director Kirby Saunders said the former space is a “legacy,” but it lacked comfort and privacy for providers. For example, it only had one room for a kitchen, bunkroom, and dayroom, and the ambulance did not fit in its small garage space.
But Saunders said the new station, located just off Highway 70, will hopefully better support its crews.
“It’s really a home away from home,” Saunders said. “Most people don’t realize this, but in a 25-year career as an EMS provider on our current shift, there’s going to be at least six and a half holidays that our team is going to miss from their families. Those are Christmases, Thanksgivings, birthdays. About six and a half times in their career, they’re not going to be with their families.”
The design process for the new station started about seven years ago and focused on “human comforts,” the EMS director explained. The completed building features four bunk rooms, a decontamination room, a kitchen, and an exercise room, as well as additional space for medical supplies and storage.
The facility also has new station-alerting technology to pleasantly awake first-responders rather than with bright lights and loud sounds, which Saunders said can cause physiological stress on the body. He said another asset of the property is its yard space, where crews can enjoy recreational activities and games during their downtime.
One of the new EMS station’s four bunkrooms.
The station’s interior, built to be a “home away from home” for first-responders. (Photo via Orange County government.)
The county broke ground on the site in 2022, which was formerly home to Krazy Karts Golf Cart Sales. Saunders said the station was meant to open the next year, shortly following the opening of the county’s Waterstone Fire Station, but the process ended up being “much more prolonged.”
“That has presented frustrations at times, but I’m proud that, even despite the delays and setbacks, we didn’t sacrifice quality,” Saunders said. “We didn’t sacrifice any features. We insisted that we build by the design and the intention of the design to ensure no corners were cut. It’s worth however long it took to ensure the end product is what we expected, what we need to do our service.”
The station will primarily serve the Efland and Cheeks communities, while also preparing for future growth near Hillsborough and being well-positioned to respond to highway travelers. And with the improvements, Saunders said a crew’s response time should be faster and more efficient.
At the event, Orange County Commissioner Earl McKee explained why he is thankful for the new station, telling the small crowd what it was like to wait for medical help during his wife’s minor emergency.
“That 18 minutes waiting for an ambulance to get there seemed like 18 years,” McKee said. “I can only imagine what it would have been [like] for a heart attack or a stroke. And [in] an occasional heart attack, or stroke, or serious events, every minute counts. Every second counts. I really appreciate everyone that’s involved in this, everyone that has a hand in it, and the community support for it.”
Despite being overdue for a station upgrade, Saunders said the county also wanted to commemorate what its EMS crews have called home since the 1980s, and featured along the new facility’s walls are photos of the original station and its providers.
Photo of Orange County’s first EMS station and crew, displayed at the new EMS Station 4.
Saunders said the new EMS Station 4 is more than a new building, but a way to honor that legacy.
“We’ve always felt welcomed and appreciated in this community since we’ve been here for years,” Saunders said. “Some of our members serving in the station are original members of the Orange County Rescue Squad. So there’s a lot of pride in this right now, and we’re fortunate to be here and continue to serve the Efland community.”
Featured image via Orange County government.
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