MILLPORT, Ala. — Residents of Lamar County will feel safer in the event of a fire when fire departments throughout the county finalize an aid agreement next month.
The Lamar County Firefighters Association will set in place an “automatic aid” agreement, which will see at least three different fire departments respond to structure and grass fires, regardless of location in the county. Previously, all departments responded to a fires based on a mutual-aid agreement, which saw departments use discretion in how much aid to request based on the nature of the fire.
Millport District 4 Councilman Tim Fields announced the plan at Monday’s town council meeting and explained the benefits for residents to be quicker response times, and for the city, a boost to its fire rating.
The Insurance Service Office will visit Millport, along with others in the county, and grade everything from vehicles to how much water can be pumped per minute, in either June or July, Fields said.
Millport currently has an ISO rating of 6, Fields said. Insurance agencies’ home rates are adjusted based on a city or county’s rating. The lower the number, on a scale of 1-10, the better.
“I’m not sure how much it will improve our ISO rating, but it’s a good thing all the way around,” Fields said. “Now, if we have a fire in Millport, we’ll have one primary responder and two others, like Kennedy’s guys, that will automatically be there. Plus, our 911 is involved, so when they get a call, they’ll have a radius of where everyone is and who they’ll send.”
In other news:
■ Mayor Icie Wriley announced that 18 people signed up for a photo ID and six people registered to vote last weekend after state officials traveled the area and provided the opportunity to register.
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