EMS station on Daniel Island relocates to apartment building

The Berkeley County EMS station on Daniel Island is on the move. 

Dispatchers, mobile medics, and two ambulances will temporarily relocate their base operations from Seven Farms Drive to an apartment unit on Robert Daniel Drive, roughly a mile away. 

The team will be housed at the Port House apartment community while Berkeley officials search for a permanent location to build a new EMS station. 

"We move tomorrow," Berkeley County Councilman Jarrod Brooks said on Monday, Jan. 19. "It is a 12-month lease, which we can extend." 

The EMS station had been sharing space with the City of Charleston's Fire Station 18 and its police department's Patrol Team 5. However, last summer, the City of Charleston notified the county that it would need the EMS unit to vacate, as it needed the city-owned space to expand its fire services. 

Berkeley officials, aware they'd eventually have to move to a county-owned property, had proposed building a new station on land they already owned – next to the Daniel Island Library and Daniel Island School. 

The proposal was quickly met with opposition. 

Nearby homeowners worried that constant ambulance sirens would affect home values and cause late-night noise disruptions; school parents cautioned that the in-and-out rolling of EMS vehicles could be a danger to the 1,100 student population, many of whom ride their bikes or walk through neighborhood streets to get to class. 

The interim solution? 

Move the EMS station to an apartment complex with more parking lot space to maneuver the full-size ambulance and quick response vehicle. 

"We still need to have Dominion (Energy) come out to drop in a temporary pole for power. That will likely be a few days, I’d imagine," Brooks said. "(But) shore power installed at the apartment location (will) keep electronic equipment charged and medications cold." 

Berkeley officials are eyeing two other possible locations for the new station, which will be budgeted at $1 million. 

The county owns land off Clements Ferry Road that could house the new station, or there's a possibility of building it next to the medical helipad on Seven Farms Drive adjacent to Governor's Park. 

"We are waiting on the South Carolina Department of Transportation to determine whether the helipad site is available," Brooks said. "It's on hold otherwise." 

While county officials search for a feasible location and continue to exchange ideas with the public, EMS services will continue on Daniel Island for at least another year. 

Once a spot is finally agreed upon, the new EMS station could take up to a year and a half to be completed.