Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990 TAG: 9007120519
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Under the plan, firefighters from one locality would respond to a fire in the other without waiting for a request for help.
It is designed to prevent a recurrence of the fatal fire last December, when it took county volunteer firefighters 20 minutes to respond to a call at the Shenandoah Homes retirement center while city firefighters could have reached the scene in three or four minutes. Four people died in the fire.
The "simultaneous response" agreement calls for both city and county firefighters to answer calls at seven retirement homes and other facilities near the boundary.
"Both localities will respond - just as if the calls came from facilities within their jurisdiction," said George Snead, director of administration and safety for the city.
"Each locality will respond with a normal complement of firefighters and equipment without waiting to be asked for help," Snead said today.
Under the plan, emergency dispatchers will automatically route fire calls at the facilities to the locality with the nearest station. Firefighters will respond and begin fighting the blaze without waiting for firefighters from the locality in which the facility is located to arrive.
The plan is scheduled to take effect Sunday.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge said today that City Fire Chief Rawleigh Quarles and County Chief Tommy Fuqua worked out the plan. "Those are the two guys who ought to get credit for this," Hodge said.
The county has a similar agreement with Salem on the Richfield Retirement Community.
The list of facilities in the agreement includes: Shenandoah Homes, which is in the county; Friendship Manor, which overlaps both the county and city; and South Roanoke Nursing Home, Fairington of Roanoke (an apartment complex for elderly people), Roanoke City Nursing Home and the Roanoke Juvenile Detention Home in the city.
The agreement includes both the city's Juvenile Detention Home and Nursing Home at Coyner Springs in Botetourt County. Roanoke County firefighters will respond to calls at these facilities because the nearest station is in the county.
Under the agreement, command control at the fire scene will be turned over to firefighters from the locality in which the facility is located once they arrive.
If the agreement had been in effect last December, firefighters from the city's No. 10 station near Roanoke Regional Airport would have answered the Shenandoah Homes call and started fighting the blaze before the county firefighters arrived.
No one was on duty at the county's Hollins Fire Station when dispatchers received the Shenandoah Homes call. The city station was manned with paid firefighters, but the county never asked the city to help fight the fire.
The county did ask the city to provide backup firefighters to staff the Hollins station while county firefighters fought the blaze. The city sent several firefighters to the county station and also provided paramedics and other emergency personnel to help with the evacuation of the home's residents.
Records will be kept on the simultaneous response calls, Snead said, but there are no plans for the localities to reimburse each other for costs. "Both localities will benefit from this. We are trying to cooperate and work as a team," he said.
Snead said the city and county also are working on other possible cooperative arrangements in fire protection, but they are not ready to disclose them. "This is a first step," he said.
Hodge echoed Snead. "We think this is a good beginning," he said.
by CNB