With cold and wet weather marking much of January, the men and women of Barrow County Emergency Services continued its progression into the future and worked around and in the cold and the rain to accomplish much of it.

"January brought more changes to the department," said Interim Chief John Skinner. "The most significant of these changes of course was the moving of the engine and ambulance as well as the administration offices into the new Headquarters Station on Pleasant Hill Church Road."

The crews from Station 1 and Station 6 worked hard throughout January, moving equipment and supplies from three different locations. For the first time in several years, the fire engine and ambulance were stationed in the zones they are assigned to, for most of January.

By the end of the month, the majority of the department’s administration was moved into the new station also.

"Crews will continue to work on organizing everything and move the remainder of the equipment into the station over the next few weeks" said Chief Skinner. "It is great that we finally have the Fire and EMS offices and the ambulance and fire engine where they belong."

The next big project the department is already focusing on is moving the E911 Center into the new Headquarters as well. With some contracts approved already and the remaining ones to go before the Barrow County Board of Commissioners in the very near future, work is progressing in this project already.

"The goal right now is to have the new E911 Center up and fully operational in May of this year," said Chief Skinner.

Communication officers with Barrow County Emergency Services handled a total of 16,312 calls into the E911 center in January, with 5,586 of them being emergency calls.

Of those, 4,594 calls were for law enforcement agencies in the county.

Of the remaining emergency calls, communication officers dispatched Fire and Emergency Services with Barrow County to one multi-family structure fire-related call, 22 single-family related calls, four vehicle fires, 13 fire alarms, 52 motor vehicle collisions, four woods fires, six gas leaks and 509 medical calls.

During the month of January, communication officers had received the calls and dispatched the appropriate public safety personnel with an average of 1 minute and 14 seconds. Fire Engines and ambulances with Barrow County Emergency Services arrived on the scene within an average of 7 minutes and 59 seconds.