New Hanover County Discontinues Contract For Fire Protection 

WILMINGTON, NC - September 30, 2010 - The New Hanover County Commissioners and Staff have put the Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. in a difficult position. On September 7th, 2010 the County Commissioners voted to assume control of the Myrtle Grove Fire District. Since that time the Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department has been working with county staff to assure that the transition would be seemless. On September 16th Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department received a proposed three month contract from the county to lease the facility and equipment while Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department developed a long term plan to provide the facility at little to no cost to the county.  The building was simply to remain as a fire station until the county no longer desired the property.  At which time it would be dissolved according to state laws governing non-profit organizations.


Negotiations have been occurring regularly since the 16th and today the county surprisingly rejected their own offer and indicated that they have decided to go in a different direction. We regret their decision.  We were working through the process to provide both short and long term solutions to this situation. We believe that what would have cost the county thousands of dollars will now cost millions. Our offer to use the Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department facility as a fire station has been made and continues to be open. Our concern is for the safety of the community we have served for 57 Years as well as the cost to the citizens given the New Hanover County Commissioners present position. We wish our fellow firefighters well as they continue to provide fire services to the Myrtle Grove Fire District. 

Best Regards,

Fire Chief David Raines

The south side was buzzing from Sunday night through the early hours of Monday morning. Myrtle Grove (Station 31) was called to a structure fire on Superior Rd. Once Engine 31 arrived, crews found fire had crawled up the corner of the house and got up in the attic. Fire crews were able to aggressively attack the fire and get a quick knock down. Federal Point (Station 91) also responded as mutual aid with Engine 92 and Squad 92. Other responding units were Tower 31, Battalion 31, MGVFD Captains 303 & 304, and Fire Marshal CF17. While crews were out at Superior, station 31 was backfilled for the next call. Like many other times MGVFD received a second call for EMS Assistance with a sick person. County Battalion 3 was in the house so he took the call with an additional MGVFD personnel. After crews had returned to the station and got the truck and equipment back in service, Engine 31 was dispatched to an MVA involving a Golf Cart on the Beau Rivage Golf Course in the early hours of Monday morning. The driver found out that the golf cart could not overcome the laws of physics during this rollover accident. Crews of career and volunteer staff continue to help others in serving the Myrtle Grove community.

Crews arrived on scene quickly to assist in this daytime vehicle accident.  Responding were Engine 31, Rescue 31 and Battalion 31

Myrtle Grove units responded to a brush fire near the Imaculate Conception Catholic Church on Carolina Beach Road.  The fire was quickly extinguished and no property or life was hurt.  Great job crew!! (Click headline for more pictures)

Residents of New Hanover County,

I am writing this letter in regards to the recent information we received about the possibility of the New Hanover County Governments’ intention to take over and dissolve the local volunteer departments in the county. I felt that some of the information provided to the public has been less than accurate and needed to be clarified.

Claims made by County Manager Bruce Shell and New Hanover County Fire Rescue Chief Donnie Hall that the dissolution of the fire departments and the formation of one department would lead to better and more training opportunities for the volunteers.  The county will provide the same training that is offered to every fire fighter in the state of North Carolina what they will have is no different than what they have now.  The one single benefit of their training plan is it allows for fewer persons to be trained at once. This option is available to any volunteer who chooses to do so now without the need for dissolution.

The county also claims that this will improve response times to emergency calls.  There is only one way to shorten response times.  Put the responding apparatus closer to the call. There are only a few ways to do that:

1. Move district lines so that you are closer to your fire station.

2. Move your fire station.

3. Build more fire stations.

Of all of these options only one of them is cost effective way to do this and that is to move district lines putting you closer to your district fire station.  Again, this option is available without the need for dissolution.

Another claim is that you will see significantly lower insurance rating from this move and therefore be eligible for a huge decrease in your insurance premiums. This is simply untrue and based solely on speculation.  If the county successfully dissolves the departments you will remain at your current rating until the NC Department of Insurance provides an inspection of the newly formed fire districts.  It is at that time that based on how well the new district does that your rates would change and they have the potential to go up or down. Meaning for some it could mean a premium increase. However, the figures being shown are very inaccurate. That is you will not see a $1400 savings on a $225,000 home. Review your home owner’s policy and look for the portion of it that is for fire and this is the portion that you will save on. To go from a Class 9 to a Class 5 will probably save you in the neighborhood of 30-40% on your Fire insurance only. This saving will probably be in the range of $200-$400 depending on your insurance provider.

Several of the commissioners and county personnel have made the claim that county Staffing responds to 90% of the calls. I just reviewed the last 10 calls at Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Station. It was as I expected the county staff has not run 90% of the calls but 100% of the calls as they are at the station 100% of the time and should catch 100% of the first response calls. However, there were 7 of the 10 calls that also had Volunteers responding with them or staffing the station for the next call.  Using their math it appears that the volunteers are running 70% of the calls in our station.

The purpose of this is to inform you that the facts of this proposal are at best unclear and the plan on how to implement it is even more unclear. However, with assurance we are told it will not cost as much as maintaining the current system.  How do we trust them when the current County Commissioners and the current fire administration have increased the cost of fire protection in the county from 5.5 Million dollars to 10 Million dollars while assuming an outstanding debt of 7 Million in the last 5 years?

 

Sincerely,

Chief David Raines