Horry County, SC
Type Department: Fire Rescue
Structure: Traditional Fire Department Organizational Structure
ISO: 2
Number of Stations: 5
Number of Apparatus: 10
Pumpers: 5 frontline and 2 reserves
Aerials: 1 frontline and 1 reserve
Specialty: 1 Rescue and 2 Beach Unit ATVs
Do you provide EMS? We are EMTs and provide first responder services
Specialty Operations: (list all) Technical Rescue Team (Confined Space, Rope Rescue, Search and Rescue Operation and Trench Rescue) EMT Bike Team
Annual Budget: $5,741,504.00
Area Covered Square miles: 21.71
Population: 19,000
Total Runs: 5936
Fire: 2295 EMS: 3641
Chief: Garry Spain
Chief Officers: Deputy Chief Billy Floyd, Division Chief Training Charles Full, Division Chief Fire Marshal Greg Frazier, Battalion Chiefs Dustin Overholser, Mike Davis, and Todd Davis
Other Officers: 15 Fire Lieutenants, 3 Deputy Fire Marshals, and 1 Health and Safety Officer Lieutenant
Number of Members: 68
Paid Members: 68
Address: 1015 Second Avenue South North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582
Web site: https://www.nmb.us/194/Fire-Rescue
Phone: 843-280-5512
Community Outreach: We assist with smoke detector giveaways and installs for the underprivileged and elderly. We do a tremendous amount of outreach in the schools as far as home safety and family safety. We are also a Fire Safe South Carolina Community. We also do a lot of social media outreach and videos to promote fire safety. Booths are set up at events to pass out literature and talk to the public about fire safety as well so that we can be out in the public as much as possible.
Top Two concerns in your community: Growth and Staffing
What are you doing for fundraising? Several local businesses make generous donations to purchase equipment.
What upgrades will you make in your department this year? Continue Planning for the construction of two new fire stations with one housing a state-of-the-art EOC. Purchase of a new engine and heavy rescue
What special hazards or unique businesses in your community? Special hazards include unpredictable weather due to being a beach community. Also, we have an influx of tourists with our population going from 19,000 to well over 100,000 during tourism season daily. As far as unique businesses, we have several unique tourism venues.
What problems in your department that you would like feedback from others? How to effectively handle growth (of your Department and Community)
List anything else you are proud of and would like the readers to know about, are you doing anything special in Recruitment, Retention or anything unique other departments could benefit from:
We are currently providing signing and referral bonuses. Within all the different committees that we have in our department, we work to ensure that every rank has representation. This ensures that everyone has a voice and a say based on his or her level. We are also in the process of performing a Department pay study.
We have a great group of individuals currently serving in our Department. We work to provide our Company Officers with the resources they need to effectively handle both the emergent and non-emergent duties they are responsible for completing. We strive to maintain a family-style atmosphere for our personnel to ensure they understand they are an integral part of the success of our department.
We encourage our personnel to present new ideas and offer feedback on what we can do better as a Department that allows us all to grow both personally and professionally.