OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Sixty minutes could save you a lot of money on your fire insurance.
That’s not an advertisement, but was, rather, the desired outcome for the volunteer firefighters at Oktibbeha County’s Bell Schoolhouse fire district during Friday’s water-shuttle test.
For the test, the fire district used a collection of 10 pumpers and tankers to move water from the station about five miles north on Highway 389 to one of the county barn complexes, where the water was dumped into large collapsible tanks.
“The tankers will bring the water in, dump it and then go back for more,” said Kirk Rosenhan, the county’s fire services coordinator. “The test requires us to deliver 30,000 gallons of water in 60 minutes.”
Austin Check, county fire training officer, said his goal was to deliver 625 gallons of water a minute for 60 minutes, well in excess of the amount required to pass the rating test.
Fridays water-shuttle test was the last stage in the fire rating process as the Bell Schoolhouse District hoped to improve its rating from its current 9 to an 8, maybe even a 7.
That’s no small matter, Check said. The rating, assigned by the state fire rating bureau, indicates the level of fire protection for residents. Lower ratings translate to lower homeowner’s insurance premiums in the area.
“Savings-wise to a homeowner, you’re talking 15 to 30 percent lower costs,” Check said. “Once you get below a 7, the savings are pretty negligible.”
Training for rating tests are an ongoing process, said Check, and rotates among the county’s five fire districts, as well as the Maben and Sturgis fire departments.
With roughly 30 volunteers, the Bell Schoolhouse district serves homeowners in the northern part of the county along Highway 389.
Check said the volunteers in the county’s fire districts take great pride in their work.
“All of our fire districts are full-service fire stations,” he said. “We do all the things fire department in cities do. The only difference is our firefighters don’t live in the stations. But as far as standards go, we do the same think any fire department in any city does. There’s not one standard for city fire departments and another standard for volunteer fire districts. It’s one standard for every fire district in the state.”
Not only do the volunteer fire districts meet the same standards as city fire departments, they often do it at a lower cost.
“We have an annual budget of $14,000 and we’ll provide the services that may cost millions on dollars other places,” Check said. “All of our firefighters take great pride in that.”
The district expects to learn the results of its testing sometime early next week.
“The goal is to get every fire district rating below a 9,” Rosenhan said. “After today, we’ll be pretty close.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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Bell Schoolhouse Fire District volunteer Thomas Hannigan monitors his water dump Friday as part of the district's fire rating testing. The test requires the department to be able to transport and release 30,000 gallons of water as the district seeks to improve its fire rating. Photo by: Slim Smith/Dispatch Staff
Kirk Rosenhan
Austin Check
