If you’re driving by it, you might not notice Orange County EMS Station 4 right away. The current facility not far from Interstate 40/85 looks nondescript — despite an ambulance being parked outside.
Kim Woodward, the EMS Division Chief for Orange County, says the lone ambulance parked at the station must park outside because it won’t fit into the garage. While the building has had some minor upgrades done since primarily being used as an equipment storage facility, getting the ambulance inside isn’t one of them.
“In various ways, we’ve been out at the station since, I would say, the mid 1980s,” Woodward says as she steps inside.
The current Orange County EMS Station 4, which has been updated from being initially used as a supply storage facility. The ambulance gets parked outside because the vehicle doesn’t fit into the garage space.
The interior of Orange County EMS Station 4, with some of the emergency responders on call.
Something else that hasn’t changed, according to Woodward, is the dining room table in the lone room attached to the garage space. It additionally feature two small cots, some chairs and one of the newer features: a kitchen area. It doesn’t take long for Woodward to complete the tour of where local EMS workers spend hours upon end each week.
“Our folks are working 24-hour, 72-hour shifts,” she says. “They do, at night, get down time and rest in the bed. They will have down time on the couch, we have a computer. But all of this has been a struggle to make sure they’re connected to the rest of the county.”
On Thursday, less than a mile away, the county government officially broke ground on a new Orange County EMS Station 4 building that may change everything. The first standalone station run by the county, it will not only help extend EMS service into the more rural area, but will provide critical updates for responders’ working conditions. Located off U.S. Highway 70, the local government purchased the property in 2019 and is building a new facility from the ground-up – which Woodward says will make a major difference.
“You add the fact that our EMTs and paramedics had an opportunity to weigh in and put their buy-in to this for what they need for a functional station, it will be night and day,” she says. “It won’t be the same at all. It will be us moving into a very functional, clean, spacious, comfortable living environment that has safety features.”
Woodward says a major drawback for the current EMS station in Efland is no space to properly decontaminate when coming from emergencies. There is no shower, leaving the EMTs to head to other stations in the county to clean up before heading back to Station 4.
Kirby Saunders, the Director of Emergency Services in Orange County, spoke at the groundbreaking and shared additional changes. EMTs and paramedics will have amenities meant to reduce some of the stressors from being on call, like private bunking rooms or ramp alerting.
“At night, when call comes in,” he said, “instead of all the lights coming on and the loud sounds, they will ramp up and slowly wake them up. We have plenty of research that shows startling someone awake in the middle of the night causes heart stress and reduces their life span. The job is stressful enough, the last thing we want to do is add physiological stressors on their bodies. So, we’re including those features as well and it’s an opportunity we haven’t had before.”
Saunders said the project will also be one of the most eco-friendly county facilities. The building, which will also include a new Medical Examiner’s Office, will use solar power as a secondary source of electricity and be built for resiliency against environmental changes.
Another way the updated station looks to the future is serving the Efland community. While the unincorporated part of Orange County is an area slower to the pace of development, many signs indicate it will be next for growth as the county’s towns expand further.
Saunders said a bigger, better station in the community makes sense not only while projecting changes but addressing an immediate need of improved service.
“We know it’s been historically underserved for many years,” he added, “and this is a really giant step forward in the right direction. And we know this area of our community just off the interstate is likely to grow and expand – we’re already seeing that happen in the southern part of the county, we’re seeing it in Mebane. We feel like this is a really strategic move to put us in the right location to ensure that we are here to meet those demands in the future when the residents need [our EMS crews.]”
There ceremonial shovels in front of the site of the newer Orange County EMS Station 4. Construction was already underway, with plans for the existing building to be fully demolished by the weekend.
Concept art for the updated Orange County EMS Station 4 in Efland. (Photo via Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects.)
Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Renée Price also shared some words before the groundbreaking and echoed those sentiments. She said Orange County’s EMS crews received around 23,000 calls for service last year. When minutes and seconds matter in response time, she said, it will be critical to helping those in the Efland and Cheeks areas.
Price told Chapelboro about the history of the purchased property. The land and building the local government bought in 2019 most recently housed a go kart business and repair shop and before that sold dog food.
Ground: broken pic.twitter.com/MJ65HPUBLQ
— Brighton McConnell (@BrightonMcC1) July 14, 2022
Saunders said he feels grateful for the county government’s recent focus of not only finding a new spot for EMS Station 4, but providing the resources to create a better space for the county’s EMS teams.
“The reality of the matter is,” he said, “in today’s society, we all spend the majority of our lives at work ̶ not at home. For providers and emergency services personnel and first responders, that’s a big impact. They spend a lot of their time at their work stations, their duty station, even their ambulances.
“The commissioners have certainly afforded us the opportunity to design this new station,” Saunders added, “with comforts that will make their work experience much better in their home away from home.”
The local government projects construction of the new Orange County EMS station to be completed in fall 2023.
Photo via Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects.
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