OUTDOOR CORNER: RURAL FIRE DEPARTMENTS ARE UNSUNG HEROES

During a good part of the Conservation Departments formative years, employees whiled away extra hours at night or on weekends fighting wildfires.

Early on people realized that uncontrolled wildfire increased soil erosion, reduced water quality, degraded log value and did not do a whole lot for wildlife habitat. This is besides the rural building reduced to ashes and foundations.

The Department was aided in the wildfire battle by the formation of Rural Fire Departments (RFD). The Conservation Department greatly values their aid and support.

Even though some RFD's are tax supported they still lack the financial resources to purchase and maintain the necessary equipment to protect all the resources within their boundaries, especially if several incidents occur at once.

As more people move out into rural areas or into rural subdivisions, the ability of a RFD to cover all the eggs is taxed.

This causes insurance companies to have nervous stress. They relieve this condition, in part, by higher rates for rural homeowners.

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, the RFD's spend a lot of time in training. This training includes tactics for suppressing grass and forest fires. They also train in fighting structure fires. Chemical and toxic waste incidents are part of their training.

The vast majority of these men and women are volunteers. A rough translation of a volunteer is someone who works for no pay and is criticized for not doing more.

To try and help the RFD's help us, the Department has set up a pipeline to try and funnel dollars and equipment to the fire departments.

In Lebanon, Mo., the Department has established the Rural Forest Fire Equipment Center. The Center serves as a clearing house for excess federal property that has fire protection potential for RFD's. This includes various types of vehicles, tools, hoses and tanks.

Once a RFD receives the equipment, especially vehicles, it isn't exactly ready to roll. The firefighters have to spend time, money and ingenuity to get the equipment fire ready.

Another Conservation Department program is the Rural Community Fire Protection Matching Fund Program. Say that real quick.

Here the Department will match 50 percent of what a RFD spends toward purchasing fire equipment. There is an upper limit of $3,000 and a lower limit of $500. So if a RFD spends $6,000, the Conservation Department will spend $3,000.

Statewide, the Department works with 859 RFD's. During 1996, the Department distributed $3.8 million worth of excess property and gave out $400,000 in matching grants.

Due to the high demand from the RFD's each year, there is a waiting period between the request for these services and the delivery. Not every RFD gets what is requests.

This year the Department has funded a program called Master Fire Planning. With those RFD's who wish to participate, the Conservation Department will help design a long-range plan to provide more complete coverage by looking at water supply sources, funding, equipment needs and required fire flow requirements. This will cost the RFD nothing except some time during the initial visit.

Hopefully this will also provide savings to rural homeowners by reducing insurance rates.

Missouri does not have the topography, weather patterns and fuel models that provide the dramatic fire scenes that we get to watch every year from the western states.

But for the rural Missourian who lost $1.2 million worth of homes and property due to grass and forest fires in 1996, things were dramatic enough.

The Rural Fired Departments are an under appreciated group of people -- until something happens. Support your local firefighters.

Joe Garvey is a district forester for Missouri Department of Conservation.