MAHONING COUNTY Fire departments to help one another

Beloit and Struthers decided not to be involved in the agreement.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Firefighters in Mahoning County no longer have to worry about tripping over boundary lines if they're called to an emergency outside their own jurisdiction.
Those lines were erased with the signing of a mutual-aid agreement among most fire agencies in the county. Two communities chose not to participate.
"Passage of this agreement is a first in Mahoning County for the fire service," said Chip Comstock, chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District. "It demonstrates the new era of cooperation between departments."
Comstock served as coordinator for the mutual-aid agreement. He said the document was several years in the making and required the input and ratification of cities, villages and townships.
Boardman Fire Chief James Dorman, president of the Mahoning County Fire Chiefs Association, said the agreement was always viewed as important, but even more so after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
"Each fire department now understands its responsibilities, obligations and liabilities to its neighbor," Dorman said. "This puts everybody under the same language and on the same playing field."
Previous agreements
Fire departments have historically made agreements to help departments in neighboring townships or communities when needed, Dorman said. Terms of those agreements, though, sometimes differed.
Some communities required that they be reimbursed if their fire department went to a call in another jurisdiction; some did not.
Some were concerned about being held liable if their fire department was busy with a call in its own territory and could not respond to an outside call for help.
The mutual-aid agreement eliminates all that, Dorman said.
"Essentially, we're not going to charge each other; we're not going to hold each other liable," he said. "Having this all laid out just removes any doubt from our minds, and we can get down to business."
Because the agreement is countywide, departments are not restricted to helping only their neighbors.
Did not sign
Beloit and Struthers were the only communities that did not sign the agreement.
In Beloit's case, it was a money matter, said Fire Chief Scott Dean. Even though the village has a volunteer fire department, its firefighters are paid a small stipend each time they respond to a fire.
With an annual operating budget of $29,000, there's barely enough money to cover the cost of fighting fires within the village, Dean said.
"Financially, our village council decided we can't afford to be sending a truck and men to Youngstown or somewhere like that," Dean said.
But that doesn't mean Dean and his crew will stand idly by if another community needs their help.
"If we get a call for service, we're going. That's all there is to it," he said. "I'll deal with the politics later."
Struthers City Council inked a mutual-aid agreement some 20 years ago with all of its contiguous communities, said Fire Chief Harold Milligan. The city opted to stay within that agreement and not join the countywide one.
"There's really no need for us to go 30 miles to Sebring," Milligan said. "It's nice that other departments want to do that."
Milligan said his department will respond to calls in those communities covered by its mutual-aid agreement. If there is a major emergency beyond that and Struthers is asked to respond, the decision should rest with the mayor, not with him, the chief said.
"I'm paid to protect the citizens of Struthers," Milligan said.
Across county, state lines
Walter Duzzny, director of the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency, said his agency also has signed a mutual-aid agreement with neighboring Columbiana County and is waiting to finalize one with Trumbull County.
His agency also is authorized through an interstate agreement to respond to emergencies in western Pennsylvania. That didn't exist before the Sept. 11 attacks, he said.
"It's important to be able to step in and help your neighbors when they need it," Duzzny said. "There should be no boundaries in times of emergency."
bjackson@vindy.com