COPING WITHOUT COVERAGE: ABSENCE OF RURAL FIRE DISTRICTS COST CITY RESIDENTS

Fire protection isn't always automatic or guaranteed in several sections of rural Southeast Missouri.

"It makes you a little more careful," said Gerald Burger of Rockview, an unincorporated community in Scott County that is not part a rural fire district.

Before Burger and his family moved into their home, they had the house rewired and a new furnace and air-conditioning unit installed outside, he said. The house had previously been heated with wood stoves and space heaters, but the insurance company told Burger it wouldn't insure the home if the Burgers used a wood stove.

Burger's home is one of about 85 houses in Rockview. Although the community does not have many fires, there are occasional blazes. Residents are required to call the Chaffee fire department to get help extinguishing the blaze.

Linda Burger was concerned about fire protection and wanted to make sure that if her family needed it, it would be there. She called the Chaffee City Hall and was told the department would fight a fire in Rockview but each response would cost $150.

But not everyone in Rockview has thought about the possibility of a fire.

John Long, one of Burger's neighbors, has lived in the community for more than 50 years. If there were a fire, Long assumed the Chaffee fire department would respond.

"I haven't really thought about it much," said Long, despite the fact a storage building behind his house burned a few years back and a neighbor's garage burned.

Rockview's lack of fire protection is not unusual for rural areas in Southeast Missouri. Scott County has several pockets without any official fire protection. Those residents depend on the good graces of municipal departments and rural districts nearby in the event of a fire.

Cape Girardeau County is unusual in that most of the county is covered either by one of the two municipal fire departments in the county -- those of Cape Girardeau and Jackson -- or by one of the seven rural fire districts. Only a small area in the extreme southwest section of the county is not covered.

John Sachen, a training and hazardous materials officer in the Delta Fire Protection District, said that while the department will try to respond to fires in that section of Cape Girardeau County, there is no guarantee the department will get to the scene.

"Firefighters want to help, but from a equitable point of view, it's not always fair," said Sachen.

The $150 fee charged by the Chaffee fire department would not begin to pay for the expense of putting out a fire in the outlying areas of the town, Sachen said. The rest of the cost has to be picked up by the community.

"It's not a finger-pointing sort of thing. It's a matter of being a responsible community," Sachen said.

Sachen said rural areas aren't getting as much fire protection as they might if the people in the rural areas rely solely on municipal fire departments to respond. Most cities do not have the type of equipment needed to put out a rural fire, such as tanker trucks and portable pumps, Sachen said. The amount of protection is limited.

Scott City has sought to address the lack of fire protection outside its city limits by asking people who want the protection to enter a contractual relationship with the city and become a member of the municipal fire department.

To be a member, a person's home and property cannot be located within another fire protection district or within the borders of another city. The member's house also must be located either between the city's eastern boundary and the Mississippi River or within a mile radius of the city.

Membership fees for those living outside the city limits are $60 a year, plus a $250 charge for each call made by the department to the property.

If a home is located outside the city and is not owned by a member, the city will charge $2,500 to make a fire call. The difference between the figures is to encourage people to become members, said Bill Crump, Scott City's deputy fire chief.

"One man bragged to his friends that he wasn't going to pay that $60-a-year fee, then his house was the one that caught fire," Crump said.

"He told us that he was planning on becoming a member, but his neighbors told us different," Crump said.

The man was charged $2,500 for the response.

Scott City also has contracted with Kelso to provide its fire protection.

State statutes allow rural areas to form fire districts inside and outside of incorporated areas, and even across county lines, as long as there is contiguous space. The exact area to be covered by a fire protection district must be voted upon by the residents.

But even if a fire district is formed, there is no certainty that residents' taxes will increase. Forming a fire district does not give the district a mandate to tax, but it does offer the opportunity to tax. A separate ballot issue must be passed to allow the district to collect taxes.

The legal standing of the district allows the district to borrow money to build buildings or acquire equipment. Fire districts also have the power to condemn buildings that are fire hazards and to pass fire codes.

"The main reason to form a fire district is that they then have a legal right to be there and the city doesn't have to pony up the money to fight fires," said Sachen.

"From the firefighters' standpoint, they take comfort in knowing they're supposed to be there," he said.