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Friendly Fire Chief urges Newberry County to fund master plan, coordinator and paid staff to shore up volunteers
Summary
Joe Palmer presented an assessment showing 264 volunteer firefighters and long apparatus response times for structural fires; he urged a county fire coordinator, a training officer, a master plan and possible millage (estimated 5–9 mills) to address staffing and equipment shortfalls.
Joe Palmer, volunteer fire chief for Friendly, told the council he conducted a months‑long assessment of Newberry County’s fire services and presented data the county records generate. “We’ve got 264 volunteer firemen in this county,” Palmer said, adding that about 94 of those volunteers are certified interior structural firefighters through the State Fire Academy. He urged the council to address gaps across three interdependent areas — stations and locations, rolling stock (apparatus) and staffing — and warned that weakness in any leg of that three‑legged stool makes the whole system unstable.
Palmer walked…
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