OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Sturgis Volunteer Fire Chief Greg Wall said his proudest achievement throughout his 30 years as chief was when the rural portion of his district received a Class 8 fire rating.

Fire ratings, measured on a 10-tier scale, are a way to classify fire departments by their ability to effectively put out a fire and measure the amount of support and equipment a department has. The lower the class rating, the lower home insurance rates are for residents living in the fire district.

While the town of Sturgis, where Wall is also chief, has a Class 7 rating, the rural portion of the district encompassing Sturgis changed from a rating of 10 to 8 in 2019 with the help of neighboring fire departments and a training exercise simulating a structure fire.

“We had to prove to the rating bureau that we could pump a certain amount of water over a certain period of time — about an hour — and prove to them that we could pump the water to a specified point,” Wall said. “The other departments brought their tankers to imitate a real fire for us.”

With new equipment, the fire district could be on its way to an even better fire rating.

Oktibbeha County Rural Fire Services recently received two new fire trucks to help respond more effectively to fires across the county. The board of supervisors approved the purchase of these two trucks, replacing two 20-year-old trucks at the county’s Sturgis and Bell Schoolhouse Volunteer Fire Departments.

These trucks have a tank capacity of 1,250 gallons of water, 250 more than the older trucks, and can pump 1,000 gallons of water per minute. Oktibbeha County Fire Services Coordinator Patrick Warner said response time should improve slightly and more water can be shuttled back and forth with two individuals being able to ride in the vehicles at once.

Each truck cost $330,000, but Warner said the county will hopefully receive $160,000 total back for the trucks from the state legislature’s Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Assistance Program. Warner said in order to recuperate some of the costs of the trucks, the fire department plans to sell the two old trucks the new ones are replacing.

Not only will these trucks increase productivity, Warner said they will conserve taxpayer dollars because the fire departments will not have to constantly pay for repair and maintenance like the previous trucks required. He said insurance premiums will hopefully decrease as well, providing homeowners with significant savings.

Because of these new trucks and the productivity they will bring, Warner said he hopes the Sturgis rural department will receive a Class 7 rating soon.

“There are two stations in Sturgis,” Warner said. “One is rated a 7, and the other is rated an 8. Hopefully this new truck is going to change one of the stations to a 7 which will drop the insurance premium by several hundred dollars.”

Mississippi State University is donating another fire truck, the Starkville’s Fire Department’s old Engine 5 fire truck that MSU now owns, to the county as well. Warner said the department has not decided where that truck will be used.

Fire departments across the county consist strictly of volunteers. Due to the size of Oktibbeha County, Starkville’s Fire Department may not reach a structure fire in a timely manner, thus requiring the help of volunteers. The county’s volunteer fire department allows firefighters to respond to fires within minutes, potentially saving homes and lives, Warner said.

“If you have a fire and you have to send someone from Starkville, someone might not get to the fire for 20 minutes because that’s how far away the city was from the fire,” Warner said. “The volunteer fire departments are positioned throughout the county in specific places so firefighters can get somewhere in a timely manner.”

Bell Schoolhouse Fire Chief Wade Howell said this new truck is just another piece of apparatus that will be used to fight fires, and he knows his firefighters will appreciate it.

“This gives us another opportunity to go fight fires and give the volunteers some pride in what they are working with,” Howell said.

While the Sturgis Fire Department is only a few miles away from every residence it serves, Wall said he hopes this new truck gives the residents a “peace of mind” about the support of the fire department.

“Volunteer fire departments help the community because when someone calls 911 about a structure fire, they know that help is on the way,” Wall said.