Lehr Arena, located at 503 W. Broadway Ave., is described as a sports arena.
A Department Rooted in Nearly a Century of Service
West Memphis Fire Rescue EMS traces its history back to 1929, per the department's Facebook announcement. Today, the department protects roughly 28,000 residents across a 29-square-mile service territory that includes two major interstate highways, I-40 and I-55, along with three main railroad lines, according to the City of West Memphis. Fire Chief Derrick Clay leads the department, which operates out of four fire stations staffed by 66 total paid personnel, including 54 line firefighters and paramedics.
Safety Day arrives as West Memphis invests heavily in its emergency services infrastructure. Earlier this month, city leaders broke ground on a public safety project involving police and fire facilities. Hoodline previously covered the groundbreaking for the new police and fire headquarters along Broadway Avenue.
Fire Station and Training Facility
The department's investment in modern infrastructure isn't limited to this month's groundbreaking. In May 2025, West Memphis opened its new Fire Station 2 and training facility at 250 N. College Blvd., officially named the Eason-Lang Training Center, according to a department history page.
Regional coordination has also improved behind the scenes. West Memphis, the city of Marion and Crittenden County consolidated their separate emergency call dispatch centers into a single merged Public Safety Answering Point, a move intended to streamline regional 911 communications across jurisdiction boundaries, according to Crittenden County 911. Additionally, in August 2025, the West Memphis Firefighters Foundation partnered with County Fire Tactics to host the Mid-South High-Rise Fire Conference, bringing hands-on training directly to regional firefighters, according to the Arkansas State Fire Fighters Association.
Fire Prevention Campaigns
The National Fire Protection Association's 2025 campaign theme was “Charge into Fire Safety,” and lithium-ion battery risks are an important fire-safety concern. National data shows a home structure fire is reported every 96 seconds across the country, with unattended cooking remaining the leading cause of house fires and fire injuries, according to 2026 statistics cited by CPI Security.
