Minutes matter for emergency services.

That’s the message Bowling Green Fire Chief Jason Colson delivered to the Bowling Green City Commission on Dec. 5, when Colson presented a proposal that includes building two new fire halls: one north of the existing Porter Pike station and another to serve the Lovers Lane area. The city has set aside $1.4 million to buy land for the stations. Money for capital improvements and equipment for the Bowling Green Fire Department does not come from the city’s general fund. The proposal involves moving the existing staff and fire apparatuses from the Porter Pike fire hall to a new north side fire station and hiring nine personnel to work in a new Lovers Lane-area station. The Porter Pike station would then become a training center.

Growth is driving the need for additional fire protection, and Colson’s proactive approach to address current and future demands is smart. The city commission would be well served to listen to Bowling Green’s top fire safety expert.

Colson told the commission that four minutes is the National Fire Protection Association’s benchmark for travel time from the second the first firetruck pulls away from the station to that truck’s arrival at the scene.

In 2016, response times to emergencies in the north side area that encompasses the Kentucky Transpark – where more than 1,000 people work daily – exceeded four minutes during 96.8 percent of calls, with some response times as long at 11 minutes and 7 seconds.

In the Lovers Lane area, which has experienced significant growth during the past five years, response times in 70 percent of the 239 calls for service exceeded the four-minute benchmark. That area of town will, in the next five years, grow by more than 600 multi-family housing units, a hotel, restaurants, homes and multiple medical facilities.

With life and property at stake, Colson’s proposal for our growing city makes perfect sense.

Mayor Bruce Wilkerson suggested Colson study the possibility of building a road from the existing airport fire station so that trucks could get from there to Lovers Lane quicker. Wilkerson’s conservative fiscal approach is admirable, but a road through an area built for air traffic doesn’t seem like the best idea from a safety standpoint.

BGFD will continue to study the numbers and look for land suitable for its needs. The city commission should move on this quickly and place its trust in Colson and other fire department managers who ultimately know what they need to protect all of us.