IS YOUR HOUSE SAFE FROM FIRE?; VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENTS STRUGGLE TO KEEP PACE WITH COUNTY GROWTH

The figures don't lie.People who move into Cape Girardeau County want to live in the country, not the city.Real estate agents fret over the lack of rural homes to show interested buyers. Contractors field call after call from people who want to build on secluded land.In fact, regional planners predict Cape Girardeau Countys population will be 91,000 by the year 2020, with about half the people living outside the city of Cape Girardeau.In their exodus to the rural regions, few homeowners consider what moving will mean in terms of fire protection. They're more worried about which school districts their children will attend or how long the drive to work will be.The city of Cape Girardeau has the county's only all-paid firefighting staff. Jackson has a combination of paid employees and volunteers. Every other area is served by one of seven volunteer departments, each of them supported by property taxes paid by residents of their districts.Sarah Ross was one who left city advantages for a place in the country. In January 1995, her family was preparing to move into a home in the Windwood Estates subdivision, located on Bloomfield Road near Highway 74. The area is served by the Gordonville Area Fire Protection District.At 3 a.m. on Jan. 17, Ross was awakened by a neighbor's call. Her home, six weeks from completion, was on fire. Gordonville firefighters were called but arrived too late."I don't know what the response time was, but they couldn't do anything once they got here," Ross said. "They did the best they could -- they really did. I appreciated every bit of their effort."But I was frustrated that the Cape Fire Department was less than five miles away and didn't respond. Gordonville never called them."After months of consoling their children about the incident, Ross and her husband rebuilt their home in the same location. They moved in six months ago."It really makes you sensitive about fire," Ross said. "Every time it storms, I'm scared that lightening will hit something. We have several fire extinguishers and smoke detectors on both floors."The Cape Girardeau Fire Department used to handle fires that weren't far outside the city limits. The service cost homeowners $500 a year, but the city discontinued it due to all the rural fire districts being created.Now the city merely has mutual aid agreements with all the other county departments. That means every department can call any other department for help fighting fires.The $500 a year fee the city charged was small compared to what some rural homeowners pay in fire insurance, said Mary Kistner, co-owner of McElreath Realty and Insurance. She said smart rural homebuyers consider the cost of fire insurance before settling on a house.Every area of the United States has a fire rating awarded by Insurance Service Office, a standard-setting agency supported by insurance companies. On the scale, a "one" rating is ideal and a "ten" rating means no fire protection at all.The city of Cape Girardeau has a four rating. Of the volunteer departments, East County Fire Protection District has a seven rating, and the rest have nines."They have done their homework," Kistner said of East County. "They got the documentation, purchased the equipment and established themselves as a department. And the fire protection classification of a district can make it more desirable."East County's fire chief, Jim Hanks, said it took a lot of work to get the low ISO rating. The biggest help was building a third fire station, which meant no home in the district was more than five miles away from a fire truck.Hanks said his fire district was ready to handle the growth it will no doubt experience."I can't speak for all the other departments, but we're doing good," he said. "Our longest response time is 23 or 24 minutes, and that's if everything is going wrong."On down the line, it may come down to having paid people, but youre talking 15 or 20 years down the line."Hanks said he has plenty of personnel, and his firefighters keep current on new firefighting techniques and train about eight times each month.Marty Schuessler, Fruitland Area Volunteer Fire District chief, isn't sure all-volunteer departments will last in Cape Girardeau County.Schuessler said it is a struggle to get and train volunteers in his district -- he would like to add 10 more people to his current 26-person department. He said there will be more paid fire departments in the future."I am sure the districts will get together," Schuessler said. "We are now, to a certain degree, but it will be more intense. We will have paid staff, someone in the firehouse at all times. They will do paperwork and keep the equipment in shape."With all the people moving into rural areas, it will almost have to be that way."

CAPE COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION

North Cape County Rural Fire District

2 stations

21 people

Fruitland Area Volunteer Fire District

2 stations

26 people

Millersville Rural Fire District

2 stations

30 people

Gordonville Area Fire Protection District

1 station

36 people

Whitewater Fire Protection District

2 stations

12 people

Delta Rural Fire Protection District

1 station

14 people

East County Fire Protection District

3 stations

32 people

Jackson Fire Department

1 station

22 people (paid and volunteer)

Cape Girardeau Fire Department

4 stations

57 people (all paid)