September 10, 1992

New station fills need in White River

       When White River firefighters officially opened their new station with a ribbon cutting and hog roast Saturday, Fire Chief Howard Bennis expected maybe a dozen people to show up.  Instead, 120 people stopped by during the day to tour the station and admire the yellow-green fire engines.  The turnout was a public vote of confidence for the expansion plans of Bennis and the volunteer firefighters.  For two years, the department sought to open a second station on the north side of the township, where growth is booming, as is the potential for fires.

         White River Township doubled in population to 23,000 between 1980 and 1990, with hundreds of new home starts each year.  The White River department shares fire protection duties for the township with Bargersville, and has responsibility for the heaviest populated area.  “We were very pressed to keep up,” Bennis said.  “We’re up to the point we should have been five years ago.”  Station 2, located at 398 Meridian Parke Lane, has been staffed by firefighters since April, but finishing touches to the building were just added.  Construction took one year and cost $365,000.

         The two story station has a large bay garage for the fire trucks, plus living quarters for the firefighters and classrooms for training.  To better protect the north side of White River Township, the department three years ago wanted to buy a 33 acre farm at 3780 W. Fairview Road and renovate the barn into Station 2.  But that plan ran into a zoning battle with neighbors.  “There were two things we were hearing from people,” Bennis said.  “They didn’t like the location because of the noise and traffic, and they thought we deserved better than a refurbished barn.”  The department eventually settled on building a station at the former site of Browning’s Orchard, near what is now Meridian Parke shopping center.  The building places firefighters close to several housing developments and many businesses.

         Parents and children from the area came out for the station’s debut Saturday afternoon.  They watched the landing of a LifeLine helicopter from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.  Two PSI Energy linemen gave a demonstration on power line safety by cooking a sausage on a portable electrical transformer to show what electrocution can do to a person.  The firefighters capped off the afternoon by demonstrating how they extricate auto accident victims.  Using special cutting tools on a wrecked car, they took only minutes to remove the “victim” from behind the steering wheel.
 
 

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