Tent serving well as Folly firehouse while renovations under way

The emergency radio cackles and a dispatcher alerts emergency personnel, who grab their gear, crank up a firetruck and race out of a tent.

A tent?

Yes, a tent -- but just until about mid-December.

The Folly Beach Public Safety Department since April has housed its firetrucks, rescue vehicles and ATVs in a large, white tent, while the real fire station some two blocks away is being renovated and expanded.

"It's a tent, but it looks like an old Quonset hut," says the island city's public safety director, Chief Terry Boatwright.

The $12,500 tent and a mobile home next to it that houses an office, day room and a bunking area are working out well as temporary fire department homes, Boatwright said.

The trucks and personnel moved to a lot at East Ashley Avenue and Second Street in April, when a $1.4 million project to overhaul the fire station beside City Hall began. Coleman Hurteau, Hill Construction Co.'s on-site superintendent, said the work is on schedule to be completed by Dec. 15.

The project will double the size of the truck bay and create a second floor above the bays with more than 5,000 new square feet of space. A mezzanine level also will provide 1,500 square feet and house a day room, kitchenette, lockers and a bunk room, Boatwright said.

The public safety department includes police and firefighters. When the expansion project is completed, the cramped police offices now in City Hall will move to the much more spacious second-floor addition.

By vacating their current space, police will open up areas for city administrative staff who also are dealing with severe space constraints, he said.

The fire department will be able to get all three of its large firetrucks under one roof at one time, plus its smaller vehicles, Boatwright said. Before the expansion, he said, only two firetrucks could fit in the bay area, leaving the third to sit outside, exposed to the weather and salt air.

Boatwright said the current police area is just 900 square feet and lacks the offices, work stations, training space and conference areas needed by a modern police department.

"There is no place we can do a private interview, and the evidence room is literally packed with stuff and not adequate for our needs," he said.

He said victims advocate Diane Rutledge works from very cramped quarters. "I've got closets in my house that are bigger than her office," he said.

Efforts to expand the facility that was dedicated in 1997 began years ago. Under former Mayor Carl Beckmann Jr., City Council agreed on a price tag and sought bids. Under current Mayor Tim Goodwin, a bond issue of about $1 million was approved to help finance the project, City Administrator Toni W. Connor-Rooks said.

Folly Beach fire officials received 486 emergency calls in 2009, most of them medical calls and some for rescue, Boatwright said. He said that while considering how to house the fire department during construction, he learned that the Isle of Palms had put its trucks under a tent for a 2006 rebuilding project.

Unfortunately, Boatwright said, the Isle of Palms already had sold the tent when Folly Beach inquired about it.

But the Isle of Palms steered Folly to the tentmaker, Universal Shelter Systems of Ontario, Canada, and a new tent was purchased. The tent, which can easily accommodate 32-foot-long trucks and is made of a fireproof fabric, will be sold when the construction project is completed, Boatwright said.

Firefighter Scott Bycroft, who has spent much time in the temporary mobile home firehouse, said many passers-by seem startled to see firetrucks in a tent.

"People ask, 'Is this where the new fire station is?' " Bycroft said.

He said Folly Beach probably has helped sell many of the large tents. "If you only knew how many people have come by from a different fire department and gotten the phone number (for the tent manufacturer)," he said.

Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 937-5560.