HANCOCK COUNTY — When D.B. Bowman, chief of the Charlottesville Volunteer Fire Department, gets an alert about a fire, two things come to mind: which firefighters are going to be able to show up; and the location of the nearest water source.
Those are two of the main issues facing his and the county’s other volunteer fire departments, which cover a big chunk of Hancock County’s 307 square miles. Two recent, destructive fires underscore the limitations of rural fire protection, demonstrating that even the best coverage strategies and fire-fighting tactics aren’t always enough to overcome the twin forces of combustion and a ticking clock. But expectations are always high.
“When someone calls 911, they expect us to show up,” said Justin Cool-Luke, a volunteer with the Charlotteville department.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
The county has three full-time fire departments: the Greenfield Fire Territory, which covers Greenfield and Center Township; the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department, which covers the New Palestine area; and the Buck Creek Township Fire Department, which covers Mt. Comfort and the eastern part of Cumberland.
The volunteer departments include Fountaintown (Brandywine Township), which also covers a portion of Shelby County; Jackson/Blue River Township (Charlottesville); and Green Township (Eden). The Wilkinson and Shirley volunteer departments cover Brown Township.
The Vernon Township Fire Department, which covers Fortville and McCordsville, is growing to match the brisk population growth in the northwestern part of the county and recently made a commitment to hire at least three full-time firefighters.
While all the departments have mutual aid agreements to help each other in emergencies, and some have EMS mutual coverage, people who live in areas served by volunteer fire departments do not enjoy blanket coverage, like those areas covered by full-time departments.
Living in a rural setting has a lot advantages, and some families wouldn’t live anywhere else. But proximity to a fire department is rarely a priority when people consider buying or building a home out in the country. It should be a consideration, Bowman said.
“You’re rolling the dice,” said Corey Breese, Greenfield Fire Territory’s public information officer. “That’s exactly what it is, because you’re not protected by a full-time department.”
Cool-Luke, an Eastern Hancock graduate who is also a full-time firefighter at Indianapolis International Airport, sees firsthand how volunteer departments struggle to cover calls. For example, during daytime hours, most volunteer firefighters have full-time jobs, so emergency response can be momentarily uncertain.
“We’re lucky to have Greenfield as our partner to help us out, but other volunteer departments are not,” Cool-Luke said.
Rural departments also have a built-in disadvantage. They have to take their own water if a fire breaks out, which is not as efficient as having a hydrant nearby.
Tankers typically are loaded and ready to roll, but they aren’t equipped with hoses and pumps to pour water on flames. If a tanker truck beats a fire truck to the scene, there is nothing anyone can do but wait until a fire truck with firefighters and a hose arrives, Breese said.
That’s what happened to the Spurling family, whose home in the 4000 block of Morristown Pike in Blue River Township was destroyed in an early-morning fire on Feb. 8. Bowman and other volunteers from Charlottesville were on the scene 11 minutes after the first 911 call. But they couldn’t get water on the flames until a tanker arrived from Greenfield five minutes later. It’s hard to say whether a faster response would have made a difference. But given the rate at which flames spread — the Federal Emergency Management Agency says a home can be completely engulfed within five minutes — firefighters had no time to spare.
How fire coverage works
How firefighters cover a territory has changed for the better over the past several years, officials say. Dispatchers send out first-responders based on mapped-out “geo-zone” areas designed to maximize the response and minimize the time for it to arrive.
Calls to 911 are answered at the county’s Emergency Operations Center on South Franklin Street in Greenfield. All safety scenarios are pre-programmed into the center’s Computer Aided Dispatch system.
In programming a CAD system for resource dispatching, officials with the center work directly with fire officials, who tell them what type and how many pieces of apparatus should be sent to each type of call.
The automated systems saves times so no dispatcher is ever pressed with making a decision.
Greg Duda, public information director for the 911 Center, said this type of planned programming in the county started several years ago and is regularly evaluated and updated in order to meet each fire department’s best practices.
As an example, when a fire is reported in a commercial building, the 911 system automatically sends out an “auto-prompt” for a ladder truck from the area of coverage.
“The old way of doing things was call for it when you got there, when you found out what you had, so this system is heads and shoulders above,” Breese said.
All geo-zone areas in the county are set up so the closest apparatus is dispatched to the scene, said Tony Bratcher, Sugar Creek Township’s public information officer.
But the system is not perfect. Volunteer departments, for example, might not have a person available to drive a certain piece of equipment to make it in time for the call.
“That’s when they’ll have to change things on the fly,” Bratcher said.
Technology also can be a wild card, and it was an issue during the Morristown Pike fire on Feb. 8. The 911 call wound up being routed to Shelby County, Hancock County’s backup, due to a problem with AT&T service in the area.
That problem delayed response several minutes when seconds mattered, making the fire particularly tough for a family living outside of a full-time fire coverage area.
The response log shows how precious the minutes were and how other factors can come into play to delay help.
The call for help was made at 1:37 a.m. The call was then relayed from Shelby County to the Hancock County 911 center at 1:40 a.m. Charlottesville, Fountaintown and Greenfield fire departments were dispatched at 1:41 a.m.
Charlottseville firefighters were on the scene at 1:48 a.m. They had no water to start fighting the blaze until Greenfield Tanker 421 arrived at 1:53 a.m. The Charlottesville tanker arrived at 2:04 a.m., 27 minutes after the initial call.
Identifying a fire coverage area
Volunteer and full-time fire departments are rated by the Insurance Services Office. Their grade can impact how much a homeowner pays for fire insurance coverage. The higher the ISO number rank on a scale of 1 to 10, the higher the insurance rate. The information generally is not made public.
Dianna Andis, an agent for Shelter Insurance in Greenfield, said most people don’t worry about things like that when they build or buy a home.
If a person has a home within five miles of a fire hydrant or a full-time fire department, their rate will be slightly less, she said. Depending on policy costs, homeowners could pay anywhere from $50 to $100 more on their premium if their area is covered by a volunteer department rather than a full-time one
For fire departments who don’t have a permanent water source in their coverage areas, they normally will have a less-favorable rating.
“Tankers are a substantially hard operation to get set-up and running, and that’s dangerous because a fire grows in size every couple of seconds,” Bratcher said.
One thing that is unquestioned is the dedication of the volunteers. For Bowman, it’s about neighbors helping neighbors. It’s why, despite getting only $200 a year for gas and clothing, he continues to be a part of a volunteer fire department.
“We do it because we want to help people,” Bowman said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Fire departments in Hancock County” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Full-time fire departments:
Greenfield Fire Territory, Sugar Creek Township Fire Department and Buck Creek Township Fire Department
Volunteer fire departments
Fountaintown (Brandywine Township), which also covers a portion of Shelby County; Charlottesville/Jackson/Blue River Township; Green Township (Eden); Wilkinson Volunteer Fire Department and Shirley Volunteer Fire Department (Brown Township)
Heading towards full-time status
The Fortville and McCordsville volunteer department in Vernon Township is considered a volunteer fire department, but it recently made a commitment to have at least three full-time firefighters on hand with the impending completion of a new station in Fortville.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
