Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050210
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
NO ONE ON DUTY TO FIGHT BLAZE
Roanoke County's fire response was at its lowest state of readiness when the Holiday Inn-Salem caught fire last weekend.No one was on duty at the nearest county fire station - Fort Lewis - when dispatchers learned of the fire at 3:05 a.m. Sunday.
It took Fort Lewis volunteers an estimated seven minutes to get a pumper truck on the road and six minutes to drive 3.4 miles to the Holiday Inn.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge praised the Fort Lewis volunteers, even though the 13-minute response time was nearly twice the county average.
Hodge called the response "pretty remarkable" considering the time of day, below-freezing temperatures, distance and terrain. Officials say the actual response time may have been less than 12 minutes.
"Any way you cut it, it still says they got there pretty quickly," Hodge said.
County officials acknowledge that firefighters could have reacted sooner if someone had been on duty at the station. Fort Lewis - like most of the county's 11 fire stations - is not staffed between midnight and 7 a.m.
"We recognize that at nighttime we are a little slower in getting there, but we feel it's an acceptable level of service," said Tommy Fuqua, county fire chief.
Roanoke County relies on a combination of paid and volunteer firefighters.
All fire stations - except for four in outlying areas - are staffed by paid career officers on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Volunteers are responsible for responding at all other times.
Roanoke County has ruled out staffing fire stations around the clock. Officials said it would cost too much to hire career firefighters and be too intrusive to tell volunteers how to run individual stations.
"When you are dealing with volunteers, you can't sit on your throne at the county offices and say, `This is what you are going to do,' " county Supervisor Lee Eddy said.
Volunteers usually staff the stations during the evenings, but most stations are empty after midnight.
The lower readiness during early morning probably did not matter in the Holiday Inn fire, which likely was out of control by the time firefighters were notified.
Firefighters did not learn of the fire until 20 minutes after the motel manager reported it. An error in the 911 computer data base misdirected the call to the dispatchers in Roanoke, instead of Roanoke County.
In the past, however, response time during early morning has been an issue. In 1989, four people were killed in a 2 a.m. fire that broke out at the Shenandoah Homes retirement center.
It took 18 minutes for county volunteers to arrive at that fire. The Hollins Fire Station had been unstaffed that night, meaning that volunteers had to wake up, drive to the station, get the equipment ready and go to the scene.
Since then, volunteers at Hollins and Clearbrook have taken it upon themselves to have members sleep overnight at the stations. Other stations occasionally have volunteers sleep over, but there is no countywide policy.
Hodge said such a policy is unnecessary because there is little difference in "reaction times" of the county's paid firefighters and its volunteers. Reaction time is measured from when firefighters receive a call to the time they leave the station.
The average reaction time for paid firefighters in 1992 ranged from one minute, 11 seconds at the Cave Spring Station to two minutes, 16 seconds at the Bent Mountain Station.
The average reaction time for volunteer firefighters ranged from one minute, 12 seconds at the Clearbrook Station to three minutes, 55 seconds at the Catawba Station.
County officials, however, do not keep track of reaction times for fires that occur when most stations are unstaffed.
The county had nine structure fires between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m. last year. The early-morning blazes accounted for about one-third of the 29 structure fires reported in the county during the year.
Hodge said he monitors the available data each month and brings any area that needs improvement to the attention of the appropriate fire chief.
Hodge said the combination paid-volunteer fire department is an excellent value to county residents. It fosters a sense of volunteerism and saves the county several million dollars that otherwise would be needed for an all-paid department.
"Volunteers do a super job," said Fuzzy Minnix, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. "They're going to be there as long as they want to be there."
County officials say it would be unfair to compare the county's fire response with that in Roanoke, which has paid firefighters covering a densely populated area around the clock.
The city response time is about four minutes. The average weekday response in the county ranges from five minutes, 38 seconds in suburban Cave Spring to 13 minutes, five seconds in rural Catawba. The average night and weekend response in the county ranges from six minutes, 45 seconds in Cave Spring to 13 minutes, 23 seconds in Catawba.
County officials say the county response times are higher because firefighters have to cover a larger geographical area that includes mountainous terrain.
"I'm not trying to compare myself with the city," Hodge said. "I believe that Roanoke County has an excellent combination paid and volunteer system. I will tell you, too, that I am comfortable - for the most part - with response times."