Pike fire departments looking for financial aid

BY LINDSAY LANCASTER

STAFF WRITER

Local emergency officials are working to develop an ordinance that would allow them to recover costs from vehicle accidents.

The Pike County 911 office and the Pike County Fire Fighters Association are collaborating to create an ordinance to help local volunteer fire departments, who rely heavily on donations and help from county government, to regain those costs.

Director of Pike County Emergency Management Doug Tackett said, “I think it’s becoming a problem,” explaining that because there is not a state law or local ordinance, some insurance companies are refusing to re-imburse these agencies for their services.

According to president of the Pike County Fire Fighters Association Randy Courtney, state law calls for fire departments to be able to recover costs from house fires, but not vehicle accidents.

“This is mostly for extrication,” Courtney said, but would cover other services, as well. “The biggest part of our runs, are mostly, probably 80 percent, are car [accident] runs.”

The fire departments would recover costs from insurance companies, and Courtney said this would not raise insurance premiums due to the billing (though rates could be affected from an accident).

This way, fire departments can recover funds for time, fuel to get there and materials used to clean up after the wreck.

“We need some financial aid and this is one way to do it,” Courtney said.

Right now, officials are trying to determine what each fire department charges for their services so they can set universal fees within the county such as for extrication, cleaning up hazardous fluid spills, and/or directing traffic, to name a few.

Thus far, Tackett isn’t sure about the specifics of the ordinance.

“It’s pretty preliminary right now,” he said, adding that the ordinance will probably be fairly broad and basic.

Officials may present the ordinance to the fiscal court within a month or so, officials estimated.

Tackett expects that the fiscal court will support the ordinance.

“They try to support the [fire] departments anytime they can,” he said.

Staff writer Lindsay Lancaster can be reached via e-mail at llancaster@news-expressky.com.