Submitted by Larry Cox, President, Dillon County Chiefs Association
The Dillon County Fire Chiefs Association met on June 8th in Latta and had a productive meeting. Those in attendance discussed alternative water supplies, and what they thought were the biggest challenges for Station 2 (Latta), Station 9 (Oak Grove) and Floyd Dale to meet the goal of reducing the ISO Rating to a seven in our districts.
The challenges were identified as:
1. Need three station response (manpower and water supply).
2. Need maps of our hydrants.
3. Need a pre-evaluation from ISO .
4. NEED MORE FIREFIGHTERS AT STRUCTURE FIRES (see # 1). Latta averages five firefighters, Floyd Dale averages four firefighters and Oak Grove averages six firefighters at structure fires. The total is 15 for all three departments.
5. Need to check and see if tanker pumps need to be tested like engines pumps do. (Checked on this and the answer is no.)
6. We need standards to go by.
7. Do we as chiefs need to meet with council?
8. Tankers and manpower are the most critical need at structure fires (see # 1).
9. They plan to apply for a Regional FEMA Grant for Station 2, Station 9 and Floyd Dale (Communications).
These three chiefs have accepted the challenges and are willing to see it through.
They will need to do pre-plans on all commercial building in these three fire districts.