Noxubee County Fire Rating Drops

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss.(WCBI) – The fire rating in Noxubee County was recently lowered. This means safer service and possibly some extra money for you.

“Ultimately we want life safety. That’s the ultimate goal first. Them we want to save property,” says Noxubee County Fire Coordinator Jim Robbins.

Robbins says the county had the worst grading possible from the Mississippi State Fire Protection Program.

He knows the benefits of changing the rating and went to work to make it happen this year.

“It was a little bit of effort but we had our supervisors made all of our appropriate resolutions and we had a waiting period before we could have a hearing. Them we got signatures from residents and registered landowners in all the districts. Now we have class nines in the county within five road miles of every fire station,” said Robbins.

This new rating means lower insurance premiums for home and business owners.

And, firefighters had to a little housekeeping and budgeting to help achieve the new status.

“We make sure that we are adequately staffed. We try to phase out all old equipment and we are using the latest when it comes to communication. There are some pieces that are still missing and we are working with our county supervisors and our police and fire chief to update our entire system,”said Noxbuee County  EMA Director Corey Brown.

Robbins believes the community is safer, but there’s more work to be done.

“What we are going to have to do from the fire departments end is prove that we can move a certain amount of water. We have to flow 250 gallons a minute for an hour. We do have the capabilities to do that. It’s going to be a little bit of a process but we want to try and get those class nines down to a class eight,” said Robbins.

Robbins says the new rating does not impact how much residents pay in taxes.