Horry County Fire Rescue celebrates grand opening of Station 4 in Forestbrook

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Horry County Fire Rescue celebrated a new addition to its emergency service infrastructure Wednesday morning during a grand opening ceremony for the new Station 4 in Forestbrook.

The new station at 120 Burcale Road cost $5.35 million to build and took about two years to finish.

The new facility replaces the previous Forestbrook station, which was built in 1980 and did not have the space to expand and handle the growth the area has seen. Officials said the new fire station is a direct response to the area’s growth, emphasizing that as more people move to Horry County, there’s a higher need for enhanced public safety.

“This is one of the biggest volume by call that we have in Horry County,” Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner said. “So, what did we do? We worked we got more people, we got a better facility, and we’re growing to accommodate that and to keep people safer.”

HCFR spokesperson Tony Casey said he expects 2024 to be another record year for call volume.

“Last I checked, we were at least 1,400 calls higher than we were at this point last year, which was a record year,” Casey said. “So there’s no doubt that we’re going to run a record year, again this year.”

Officials said crews are able to serve the people of Horry County more efficiently and effectively because there are more volunteers, career personal and large pull-through bays at the new station.

“It wasn’t it seems like not that long ago, there was a handful of us,” said Randy Webster, Horry County’s assistant administrator of public safety. Now there’s a couple of handfuls of us.”

Officials said the central location of the facility will enhance response times.

“They run a lot of calls out of here,” Casey said. “So having that quick access to [Highway] 501 or into Myrtle Beach or even to [Highway] 544, they’re gonna run even more here because of this access point.”

The station also has new features, such as a refurbished bus for multipatient incidents. That allows triage and transportation for up to 11 patients. Officials said the bus is a great addition as the chances of an incident happening with multiple injuries has increased.

“This station is really great they added extra base to this one,” Casey said.

The entire building is also built to withstand severe weather events such as hurricanes.

Officials managed to overcome COVID-19-pandemic-induced budget constraints and successfully opened the new station without raising taxes.

Horry County Council member Danny Hardee said before the pandemic, the cost of fire engines was $400,000 to $500,000. Now, they cost almost $1 million per engine. He said the cost of building new fire stations has also increased from $3 million to now more than $5 million dollars.

“When we’re faced with something, either protect the people and take care of them, or not well, Chief [Joseph] Tanner and his staff, worked hard and worked with the county staff, and they worked hard, and we got all this accomplished and now there’s no tax increase,” Hardee said.

Officials encourage everyone in the community to stop in and visit the new facility.

“Introduce yourself to these people because one day they might be the person that may save you or a loved one’s life,” Horry County Councilman Michael Masciarelli said.

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Savannah Denton joined News 13 in July 2023 as a reporter and producer. Savannah is from Atlanta, Georgia, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Follow Savannah on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of her work here .

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