CRESTVIEW — North Okaloosa County fire departments' mutual aid agreements aim to ensure quick emergency assistance from nearby districts.
Under the covenants, one fire district calls another fire district for help responding to blazes. This particularly benefits stations with limited resources.
However, Crestview Mayor David Cadle says the burden of support too often falls on the city's fire department.
MUTUAL AID
Crestview's mutual aid agreements with neighboring districts state that participating agencies will provide comparable levels of support to one another.
“Mutual aid … is based on each agency sending the same basic number of personnel and equal equipment to emergencies,” Cadle said.
But that's not always the case, city officials said.
In 2015, the Crestview Fire Department responded to 80 calls for help outside city limits, according to CFD records. The same year, other agencies responded to 12 calls for help within Crestview city limits. (Editor's note: See sidebar at left for the data breakdown.)
It’s not that neighboring fire districts are unwilling, or unequipped, to provide the support they should in a mutual aid situation, Crestview Fire Chief Joe Traylor said.
Most surrounding fire districts, apart from the North Okaloosa Fire District, are staffed entirely by volunteers with other commitments, he said. (Editor's Note: See a map of North Okaloosa fire districts under 'FILES/LINKS' at left)
“The problem becomes that they may volunteer up here, but they work south at Eglin (Air Force Base), or Pensacola, or Destin or Fort Walton Beach,” Traylor said.
“They may not be able to leave their day job to fight a fire.”
DIVERTING RESOURCES
The Crestview Fire Department's three stations are staffed with 46 professionals; 14 per shift. The CFD has four engines, including one back-up; a 75-foot ladder with pump; and one command/rescue vehicle.
“Every time we send an engine out of the city, that’s one engine that’s not available to fight a fire in the city,” Traylor said.
Traylor said there have been instances when Crestview firefighters and equipment have had to be recalled from a mutual aid response to fight a fire within the city limits.
“We’ve also had to refuse to respond (to mutual aid requests) because of a situation in the city,” Traylor said.
Such situations raise concern because they could mean the difference in saving a life or a structure.
Currently, the city’s main mutual aid support comes from Eglin Air Force Base’s Fire Emergency Services at Duke Field. On a couple of occasions, Eglin firefighters had to fight a Crestview fire while Crestview resources were providing mutual aid elsewhere, Traylor said.
“While most of these calls did not require us (to be on-scene) for a long period of time, they did reduce the ability of the fire department to meet the needs of Crestview,” Cadle said.
AUTO-AID
Under mutual aid, a fire department assesses the engulfed area in its jurisdiction and summons assistance if needed.
“Mutual aid was designed to support individual fire departments that exceeded their internal ability to contain the situation,” Traylor said. “We have a situation occur, we get on scene, we evaluate it and we commit our resources. If I need more, I request mutual aid.”
Mutual aid with the North Okaloosa Fire District evolved into auto-aid, in which adjacent jurisdictions automatically respond to each other’s fires.
But because NOFD’s firefighters are based at Bob Sikes Airport, there is a delay getting to the John King Road substation 5 miles away. The Crestview Fire Department, based out of its P.J. Adams Parkway station, often arrived at an NOFD fire first.
“Everything south of the interstate, we would automatically respond to regardless of who’s paying for the services,” Traylor said.
“If my engine south of the interstate is fighting a fire in the county and a fire occurs in the city, the citizens of Crestview are getting less services than they paid for.”
BACK TO BASICS
Traylor and Cadle want the city’s mutual aid agreements to return to their basics.
That means terminating auto-aid responses.
“We do not want to see anyone’s house burn down; however, we are asking the requesting agencies to abide by the original understanding of the mutual aid agreement and specifically request our presence if needed,” Cadle said during his Jan. 25 State of the City address.
“We’ve helped them, and we’ll continue to help them,” Traylor said. “The difference is now, we want someone from their jurisdiction to be on scene and evaluate it. We’re not doing the automatic thing.”
North Okaloosa Fire District Chief Ed Cutler said his agency directs most of its mutual aid responses to the Dorcas Fire District.
But if funding becomes available, re-staffing the John King Road station would be a priority.
“If we have the manpower, that’d be the first station we’d staff,” he said. “We don’t have auto-aid with Crestview anymore.”
Neighboring fire districts frequently request the Crestview Fire Department's assistance through mutual aid agreements.
In 2015, the CFD responded to 80 calls outside city limits in this areas:
●North Okaloosa Fire District: 38
●Holt Fire District: 20
●Dorcas Fire District: 11
●Baker Fire Department: 10
●Duke Field Fire Emergency Services: 1
The same year, these agencies responded to 12 calls within Crestview city limits:
●Duke Field Fire Emergency Services: 7
●North Okaloosa Fire District: 3
●Baker Fire Department: 1
●Holt Fire District: 1
Source: Crestview Fire Department
NORTH OKALOOSA FIRE DISTRICTS
Almarante Fire Department: All volunteers. Equipment: 3 engines and 1 attack truck
Baker Fire Department: 35 volunteers. 2 engines, 1 tanker, 1 brush truck, 1 ATV and 2 rescue trucks
Blackman Volunteer Fire Department: All volunteers.
Crestview Fire Department: 46 professionals (14 per shift). 3 stations. 4 engines (including 1 back-up), 75-foot ladder with pump and 1 command/rescue vehicle
Dorcas Fire District: 1 professional, 8 volunteers. 2 engines, 2 brush trucks, 1 tanker, 1 rescue vehicle and 1 attack truck
Holt Fire District: 22 volunteers. 3 engines, 1 brush truck, 1 tanker, 2 air support trucks, 1 rescue truck
Laurel Hill Fire Department: 8 volunteers. 2 fire engines, 1 rescue vehicle, and “Old Red,” a restored 1940s show truck.
North Okaloosa Fire District: 21 professionals, 9 volunteers. 4 stations (3 unstaffed but equipped). 5 engines, a ladder truck, a tanker, a brush truck, and 3 airport fire vehicles
Blackman and Holt fire officials did not immediately return phone calls.
Sources: Department personnel, websites and Facebook pages
MUTUAL AID RESPONSES
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SPECIAL REPORT: Mutual aid agreements strain Crestview firefighters' resources (MAP)
