Hurricane mayor says response times won’t be affected in areas annexed from Teays Valley

PUTNAM COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – A public notice regarding changes in fire coverage in Putnam County had some residents asking questions about potential delayed response times during emergencies.

Teays Valley Fire Department published the notice on Friday, Oct. 11, stating that as of that day, they would no longer be covering roadways and addresses listed in the notice. They said these locations were recently annexed by the city of Hurricane and would now be covered by the Hurricane Fire Department.

Five miles lie between the Teays Valley Fire Department and the Hurricane Fire Department, causing some individuals at locations seated closer to the Teays Valley Fire Department to worry that response times could be affected.

Combating this, Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards said there are no reasons for citizens to worry about delayed response times due to mutual aid agreements with surrounding fire departments, including Teays Valley and Hurricane, that will guarantee the same response times in the event of emergencies.

“Depending on the call, everybody would be there as normal. Now if there’s a minor car wreck, fender bender car wreck in one those areas, Hurricane is going to go to it,” Edwards said. “I’m talking about anything that has injuries, structure fires, entrapment – anything bad – it’s all listed at Putnam County dispatch. It’s there. They automatically dispatch everybody, and we all go. That’s how it’s been.”

The seven annexed locations include a home on 562 North Poplar Fork Road, West Teays and Mountain View Elementary Schools, Thrush and Clark allergists, Fairways restaurant, the under-construction Valley Point Apartments and Highly Blessed Realty.

It also includes I-64 East and West from mile-marker 36.5 to mile-marker 39, Teays Valley Road from Cow Creek to State Route 34, State Route 34 from Papa John’s to N Poplar Fork Road, North Poplar Fork Road to 941 North Poplar Fork Road.

“Essentially nothing has changed by the annexations. West Virginia State Code §8-15-1 gives the governing authority, the governing body of the city, the preliminary power to take care of all fires and extinguish the fires, which is what we do. That’s already in state code,” Edwards said.

He continued, “That’s just the standard thing to do. There’s nothing weird about this, nothing crazy. It’s just what occurs. It doesn’t change who gets dispatched. Again, three or four units, and there are three or four units going in there.  If it would have been five or 10 years ago, same thing. Mutual aid.”

Edwards said the seven locations that were listed on the public notice chose to be annexed for various reasons. He told 13 News “They will all receive additional services, including additional police protection on top of state police and sheriff’s department.”

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