New Fire Station Opens in Cherokee County

CANTON, GA -- This week, Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services recently opened a new fire station in the central part of the county.

Station No. 29, a volunteer station, will be located at the old fire tower along Highway 20 just east of Canton. The new station has four bays and will contain a fire truck for the volunteers.

Cherokee Fire Chief Tim Prather said his agency conducted an analysis a few years ago when it was preparing for its ISO, or Insurance Service Office, review and "discovered that we have four to five pockets of areas in the county that were not within five road miles of a fire station," according to an agency press release.

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The Governors Preserve subdivision, located off Harmony Drive along Highway 20, was one of those areas, and those residents called Prather's office to report their insurance rates increased "significantly."

Prather said Cherokee County District 1 Commissioner Steve West reached out to him and asked if there was anything the county could do to help his constituents.

One building on property formerly belonging to the Georgia Forestry Commission was vacant, so Prather began exploring what it would take to get the facility up and running.

The official Certificate of Compliance from Georgia Firefighters Standards & Training Council was received in March, and the fire department received word in April from ISO that its recognition of the additional station would go into effect Sept. 1.

The agency added it hopes the property will be eventually used for a new fire station and a 24-hour crew sometime in the future.

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Images via Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services