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County officials promised reduced response times by 2010 for a fast-growing part of upcounty at a groundbreaking ceremony last week for the long-anticipated East Germantown Fire Station.

The future station, just off the intersection of Route 355 and Boland Farm Road, is expected to be completed by early 2010. The station will serve residents of a 12.7 square-mile area that includes Milestone, Neelsville, Fox Chapel, Middlebrook and Ridge Road Recreation Park. The station will be the third in Germantown, joining one station on Crystal Rock Drive that opened in 1989, and the West Germantown Fire Station in the Kingsview area that is scheduled for completion in January.

"We've needed this fire station, this and the West Germantown Fire Station, for many, many years," said County Council President Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown during the Sept. 24 groundbreaking.

County officials at the groundbreaking ceremony said the fire station, along with the West Germanton station, will solve problems with response times and a lack of firefighters and equipment for the growing population that have plagued Germantown for years. The fire station on Crystal Rock Drive has been the main source of firefighting service for an estimated 84,000 residents in Germantown. The area served by the East Germantown station will serve a population of 34,360 by 2015, according to county estimates.

County Executive Isiah Leggett, (D), said he was pleased to attend the groundbreaking but looked forward even more to the ribbon cutting that will mark completion of the project.

"This is an ideal location and should work well for the entire community," Leggett said.

"It's just a tremendous accomplishment and long overdue," said Fire Chief Thomas W. Carr.

The completed one-story station, officially named Germantown/Milestone Fire Station No. 34, will cover 22,200 square feet and include four drive-through bays and administrative and living space.

The 20 or so firefighters at the station will have a goal of reaching their destinations on calls within six minutes, said Scott A. Gutschick, planning section manager with the county fire and rescue service. He spoke in an interview after the ceremony. The six-minute response time encompasses the period from the time a citizen places an emergency call through the processing of the call, preparing and loading equipment and actual travel time, Gutschick said.

"This will be a very busy station, no doubt about it," he said.

In an interview after the ceremony, Carr said the six minute goal is pegged to a national standard that assumes a fire grows exponentially for every minute it burns. The six-minute response goal also applies to ambulance calls and is based on research showing heart stoppages cause brain death within four to six minutes, he said.