Success Story

RC&D’s fire program helps rural families

Arkansas’ Resource Conservation and Development Councils are taking care of families throughout the state by helping rural fire departments obtain grants and improve their fire ratings.

The Rural Fire Protection Program saved 128,000 homeowners $26 million on insurance premiums last year. “These aren’t just one time savings, they’re year after year,” said Richard Drewry, Northwest Arkansas RC&D coordinator.

The council also helped 194 out of 682 stations enrolled in the program lower their Insurance Service Office rating - resulting in the lower insurance costs.

In Marshall, county seat of Searcy County, 850 homeowners saved $141,000 on their premiums.

Searcy County, serviced by the Northwest Arkansas RC&D Council, was the first to develop an area-wide fire plan. 
The plan includes agreements between stations to respond to fires even if they’re outside of their coverage area.

“This is very important to the program. In rural areas, pipes aren’t laid for hydrants so water shortages are an issue,” Drewry said. “Now, stations can rely on other area departments to assist with hauling water to the scene.”

“As a fire fighter, it is sickening to watch a structure burn to the ground because we ran out of water,” said Jeff Mays, a volunteer fireman and county justice of the peace. “It’s nice knowing another station has more water on the way.”
The system has been put into effect several times around the Marshall area.

“We fought one fire on top of a mountain for three to four hours without running out of water,” said Ronald Rayland, Marshall volunteer fire chief. “We rolled our tanker truck, emptied the water and headed back for more, while other departments were heading up the mountain with tankers full of water. We did this until the fire was extinguished.

“Before the agreements were in place, we would have had to go back to town and re-fill the trucks and would have probably lost the structure completely,” Rayland said.

The tanker truck was added to the Marshall arsenal thanks to a $12,000 grant from the RC&D council. “If it hadn’t been for RC&D we wouldn’t have been able to afford the tanker,” Rayland said.

“The tanker gives us a second option. In parts of town where there aren’t hydrants and in the country, we have to use the tanker,” he said.

The RC&D councils are also dealing with the lack of hydrants in rural areas. By installing dry hydrants the crews don’t have to go as far for water. A dry hydrant is a non-pressurized system that allows crews to draft water out of a pond or stream into the tanker truck.

“We’ve tried to pump water from a pond before without the dry hydrant and just sucked mud out,” Rayland said. “The system makes a tremendous difference.”

Last year, the councils award $789,000 to departments throughout the state. However, they received requests for $4 million dollars of assistance.

RC&D councils receive funding from the state legislature through the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission. “We could not offer this program without the financial support of the state legislature,” Drewry said.

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