PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
FIRE DEPARTMENT IN TRANSITION … The Pioneer Fire Department (above) is currently facing some tough times following the resignation of nearly its entire department after a controversial situation involving the demotion of its assistant fire chief at the village council meeting on Monday, April 13.
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
The most important question facing residents of Pioneer this past week is what fire protection looks like in the future of the Williams County village.
Many questions will now have to be answered about who is going to protect Pioneer following the resignation of twelve firefighters at the council meeting held on Monday, April 13, and three more on Wednesday, following Mayor Edward Kidston’s recommendation that Tiler Williams be demoted as the assistant fire chief.
It also sparked an uproar throughout the community in which questions have been raised on what comes next involving fire protection.
MAYOR’S STATEMENT
“By now most of you have been inundated with opinions and comments about emergency services in our village,” said Kidston in a prepared email statement. “Simply put, you remain protected.”
There have been numerous concerns raised about it, especially if a building catches fire in the village and who will be coming to put it out.
COUNTY DISPATCH RESPONSE
According to Williams County Communications 911 Director Heather Mercer, she has already spoken with officials from the Kunkle/Madison Township Fire Department about the situation.
“We have made the decision to automatically implement this for the time being until we receive further information from Pioneer,” said Mercer via an email response.
Kidston then stated that if the emergency is fire-related, the Pioneer Fire Department will be dispatched as it always has and will respond accordingly.
Currently, the fire department has three certified members, and if the emergency requires additional personnel, other departments will be dispatched to the scene.
“Though no one can accurately predict call volume in any given month, it certainly is true by looking at the past we can fairly estimate the future,” noted Kidston.
CALL VOLUME AND COVERAGE
Over the last six months, the department has responded to ten total calls ranging from a cooking fire to gas leaks.
“As you can see, the fire department responded a total of ten times inside the village in the past six months,” pointed out Kidston regarding the fire department’s report.
“Over half of the calls were accompanied by a crew of four or less. If the next six months are similar, our in-house crew will often be sufficient to respond without assistance.
“The remaining calls will require mutual aid from neighboring departments and/or assistance from other personnel within the village.”
MUTUAL AID AGREEMENTS
The village currently has several mutual aid agreements with area fire departments, and the situation Pioneer now faces is the response time among them, which is going to be very critical.
Mercer said the Williams County Fire Chief’s Association has a mutual aid and protocol binder that is like a flow chart for mutual aid for structure fires and it lays out who will be sent for mutual aid for each jurisdiction.
“For non-structure fire calls (crashes, or any other fire call) we have a policy in place to send their next closest department (which would be Kunkle) in the event that one department is not available or does not respond,” commented Mercer.
Should the Village of Pioneer have a fire emergency, the closest responding fire department is Kunkle/Madison Township, which is five miles from Pioneer.
The village also has mutual aid fire contracts with Alvordton/Millcreek Township (five miles), Montpelier (eight miles) and Waldron, Michigan, in Hillsdale County (nine miles).
Should a fire reach a second-alarm situation, then Morenci, Michigan (12 miles) and Brady Township (12 miles) would respond.
REBUILDING THE DEPARTMENT
Kidston admits that rebuilding numbers in the department won’t be easy, but it will not happen overnight. A large portion of our members chose brotherhood over service to our community,” said Kidston.
“This decision has clearly placed us all in a difficult situation. Their departure was immediate, without notice, and as elected officials we need to ensure the safety of our citizens.”
Pioneer council president Bryan Gendron was contacted for a response but declined comment due to the nature of the situation involving the fire department.