Members of the county’s public safety committee and the fire commission received a fire study report completed by AP Triton, which included 19 recommendations for the county’s fire service.
The first recommendation was keeping the current Vance County Fire Department as it is. The report stated that VCFD “is essential to a continued level of service between Bearpond and Henderson and is a vital backup to all departments serving Vance County.”
Other recommendations include having a separate position of fire marshal and possibly merging or increase collaboration between VCFD and the county rescue squad.
The complete report can be found on the county’s website, www.vancecounty.org.
Frank Blackley with AP Triton presented highlights of the 145-page report during the joint meeting of the two committees Thursday afternoon.
Blackley said the findings of the fire study can help county leaders address challenges to provide fire coverage to a growing county population, “how to determine what those resources are going to look like and plan for the future.”
At some point , he said, there will be an increase in population because of growth spreading out from the Triangle area.
He also said that the current fire tax rate will not keep up with inflation, noting that without an increase in the fire tax, the fund would be in the red by 2029. The current fire tax rate is 8.9 cents per $100 valuation, and the proposed fire tax rate in the 2024-25 budget is 5.9 cents per $100.
The study involved getting lots of information from each of the volunteer fire departments as well as making site visits to each location.
The study also noted a need for the county to develop a formal, written countywide incident management system to create consistency among departments. And Blackley noted a need for adopting National Fire Protection Association standards and to have consistent protocols and standard operating guidelines in place across departments.
The study included a pathway to implement the recommendations, starting with the creation of a Fire and Rescue Services Working Group to develop and prioritize goals.
A few representatives from the two committees questioned some of the data points in the study, and Blackley said there were several sources that provided the information, from the individual fire departments to 911 and CAD data to the U.S. Census.
County Manager C. Renee Perry asked Blackley whether correcting those inaccuracies would change the recommendations contained in the study and he said “no, probably not.”
Commissioner Dan Brummitt, who also chairs the Public Safety Committee, said a number of the recpomendations come down to money. “It’s a budget consideration – we don’t have an endless budget…a lot of these things would be real nice,” he added.
“We’ve made great strides since 2006, when another fire study was done. He said many of the recommendations and findings contained in this most recent fire study are issues that were being dealt with already.