Wagoner County fire departments sign agreement

August 16, 2008 10:26 pm

— The Wagoner County Fire Fighter Association has filed a mutual aid agreement between its 14 county fire departments.
The agreement allows the departments to work together to exchange ideas and information to better protect its citizens in emergency situations, said Sherry Cleland, board member.
Under the agreement other fire departments within the county might be called on to respond outside of their normal jurisdiction.
The fire departments are: Broken Arrow, Coweta, Flat Rock, Oak Grove, Okay, Porter, Redbird, Rolling Hills, Stone Bluff, Taylor Ferry, Tullahassee, Toppers, Wagoner and Whitehorn Cove.
“In previous years we have suffered storms, tornadoes, water rescues, grass fires, residential and business fires that have required the response of more than one fire department,” Cleland said. “This agreement will allow each of our departments to keep responding to emergencies in our areas and offer help to the entire county.”
Several of the fire departments have participated in mutual aid with neighboringfire departments. This agreement expands the areas where they may help, Cleland said.
Some fire departments have larger capacity and more modern pumper trucks. Some departments have trucks that carry chemical foam, while others may have excellent medical response trucks and emergency medical personnel to man them, Cleland said. Some departments have personnel trained for specific emergency responses such as rope repelling rescue, trench rescue or swift water rescue. This agreement allows each department access to equipment and trained personnel throughout the county.
The Wagoner County Fire Fighter Association is working toward installing a new 800 MHZ 911 radio system, which will link the firefighters through the sheriff’s department, Cleland said.
“This will give each of the fire departments a common networking ability during emergencies,” she said. “The new system will boost radio communications and eliminate some of the problems we have had in the past with lost signal, over riding other departments communications systems or hitting dead spots in the system.”