BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – East Baton Rouge Emergency Services is working to fill gaps around the parish to make sure you get the help you need faster.
Crews are hard at work on Station No. 9. The newest, stand-alone EMS station will not only be a backup headquarters, but also a disaster supply warehouse, which EMS Spokesman Brad Harris said can come in handy during the fifth season.
“Whenever there’s a hurricane or we have a storm and we have surge units come in from out of state, they like to park their ambulances here, so we’ll have an area for them to have dormitories, kitchen areas for them to prepare meals as well as park their ambulances,” said Harris.
The $2.6M facility will have three ambulance bays, allowing them to spread their resources out more evenly.
“Currently we have multiple ambulances at some of our other stations so we will be able to take some of those trucks and move them here to kind of spread us out a little bit,” said Harris.
Harrs said the current closest station to this area off Airline Highway is about ten minutes away, but that can feel like a lifetime for someone in an emergency.
“This seems to be a location where we have a majority of our calls and there was kind of a hole right in the center of our parish, so this is an excellent location that was afforded to us to be able to build on and it’s going to fill a gap in the center of our parish,” explained Harris.
Filling the gaps to get you the care you need faster.
“It’ll definitely decrease response times for people who call 911 in this area,” said Harris. “It will allow is to be closer to them so that way when they do call 911 it doesn’t take as long for an ambulance to get to them.”
This station is set to open in May 2025, but it’s not the only new building EMS is working on. Greenwell Springs and possibly South Baton Rouge could also be seeing new stations soon.
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