Mutual Aid Agreements And Emergency Plans Between Fire Departments

CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – When large scale emergencies strike, first responders often rely on other departments for backup.

That help was needed in Okolona over the weekend, when a furniture plant caught fire.

Fire departments from three different counties responded to the plant fire Saturday evening.

Luckily, the fire was contained to one area, but firefighters say it’s always best to be prepared.

That’s why departments have plans ironed out ahead of time.

Houston Fire Chief and Chickasaw County Fire Coordinator Jonathan Blankenship says fire departments rely heavily on each other.

“Everybody nationwide is strapped for help. It’s just shorthanded, so especially the larger events, we couldn’t make it without the outside help.”

That outside help is thanks to mutual aid agreements among departments.

“First, inner-local mutual aid agreements between all of our fire departments in the county, which means anytime anyone of us needed some extra help, all we have to do is call and get as many as we can and also our counties have mutual aid agreements with each surrounding county.”

That inner-local agreement paid off in Okolona on Saturday, when a fire sparked at United Furniture.

Blakenship says 50 to 60 firefighters from several different departments responded to the scene.

The fire was controlled in about a half an hour and caused limited damage.

“They got extra help coming really fast because it takes a while. It would take Houston, for example, 20 to 25 minutes to get over there and they went ahead and activated the extra help early, and but, they did a good job containing the fire themselves.”

Okolona Fire Chief and Monroe County Fire Coordinator Terry Tucker says in these types of situations, the more help, the better.

“Every fire department in every small town in north Mississippi, can’t have everything they need all of the time, so you have to rely on your neighbors to provide you with trucks, manpower, and things of that.

And also specialized equipment.

Within the last week, Tucker says the department has had to page for backup for all of those things.

“We’ve used Amory Fire, you know, Shannon, Nettleton, several volunteer fire departments from Monroe County, and Houston Fire for the fire at United Furniture, and then two weeks ago, we used Amory Dive Team to recover a drowning victim from a catfish pool.”