Hearthside teams with Rural Metro
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Ready for Rural Metro’s training exercise at the soon-to-be Hearthside Bank location, 11140 Kingston Pike, are, from left: Keebler Williams, Kristin Byers of Hearthside Bank; Joe Williams, TJ Giles, Dean Walthen, Alex Fowler, Chris Caywood, Jonathon Souther of Rural Metro; and Jimmy Huddleston of Hearthside Bank. - Photos submitted
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Rural Metro firefighter Eric Bradshaw, right, watches Jonathon Souther scale a wall during a Wednesday, Aug. 16, RM fire training exercise at the soon-to-be Hearthside Bank location, 11140 Kingston Pike. - Photos submitted
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Kristin Byers, marketing officer for Hearthside Bank, had an opportunity to step in the turnout gear of a firefighter. - Photos submitted
A new bank expects to open the first of the year in Town and already is making a connection to the Farragut community.
Hearthside Bank currently is deconstructing the former BB&T bank at 11140 Kingston Pike, at the corner of Concord Road and Kingston Pike.
“We’re on the construction company’s timeline,” said Kristin Byers, Hearthside marketing officer. “So, as soon as we can (open).”
“The fire department needed to look at the building before we did plans,” Hearthside relationship banker Jimmy Huddleston of Farragut said.
The bank’s donation of a conference table and chairs to Rural Metro expedited into another discussion.
“The building’s empty,” Huddleston said. “It’s going to have to have a lot of deconstruction before we can start construction.”
He recalled the Rural Metro representative asking if the fire department could use it for training exercises, which occurred Wednesday, Aug. 16.
“They very rarely get to do real-life scenarios in a building, where they can actually break windows, break walls, break doors,” Byers said. “They were able to do this all with the contractor’s approval. We obviously loved the idea. It was so fun.”
“Any time you can help guys like that” is rewarding, Huddleston said. “And what the fire department loved (is) it’s a safe building. There are no fires; there’s no gas; they can control the scenario.”
He said Rural Metro in Farragut opened up the training to two other fire stations that morning.
“We worked with Mike Daniels (with Rural Metro)” on the exercise,” Byers said.
“They had some new recruits that were coming in, so they blindfolded them, and they guys had to come in like it was smoky and they couldn’t see,” Huddleston said. “They were feeling for walls.
“They were climbing walls with a tool … like a rock wall,” he added. “Kristin got to operate the Jaws of Life.”
“It made me have a deep appreciation for what they do,” Byers said. “I couldn’t even lift my head up with all that stuff (gear), and they’ve got all this equipment on.”
“It was very interesting to watch,” Huddleston added. “Anytime you can reach out and help some of the departments … or anybody in the community … it helps everybody.”
Paying it forward has grown.
“It’s cool because they have met our contractor, and the contractor was like ‘anytime I have a full demo again, I can just bring these guys and (the fire department) has more buildings and opportunities for those real-life (exercises),’” Byers said.
Hearthside Bank, which bought the property in January 2022, is a full-service bank. Currently conducting business in Franklin Square until its opening, it provides checking, savings and loans.
For more information, call 1-800-354-0182, visit hearthsidebank.com or Facebook or Instagram.
