Volunteer fire department in Carter County quits because of disputes with city

GRANDIN, Mo. — The city of Grandin finds itself in a bit of turmoil as its entire volunteer fire department quit early last week.

All 14 volunteers of the Grandin City Volunteer Fire Department quit Tuesday, July 25. The mass resignation was reportedly because of several factors, one being the city saying it was no longer able to insure the fire trucks, according to officials with the department. Messages to city officials in Grandin — about 30 miles west of Poplar Bluff, Missouri — had not been returned as of Friday afternoon, July 28.

"(The city said) they don't have money for insurance on the trucks anymore, so they were going to only let us run one truck out of the building where they have three," said Joseph Gates, chief of the newly formed Grandin Rural Fire Department.

Another factor was the city reportedly deciding in May it would no longer provide mutual aid to other departments, wanting to concentrate only on fires in Grandin itself.

"You have to give to receive," Gates said. "We're a volunteer community. If you're not giving mutual aid to Ellsinore, Van Buren and the other departments that you're going to call upon, when you need help, they're not going to be willing to give you help."

The latter decision was one of the reasons Gates and other members of the city fire department created the Grandin Rural Fire Department.

All 14 of the former city firefighters now work for Grandin Rural. Gates said the new department has two fire engines and a tanker truck.

However, there might still be more problems between the city and the new department.

The rural fire department responded Wednesday, July 26, to a fully engulfed residence on Route O near Grandin. Grandin Rural called for and received mutual aid from departments in Ellsinore, Oxly and Doniphan.

However, Gates said firefighters clashed with city officials about getting water to put out the fire.

"One of the (Grandin) City Council members (Jim Tucker) had come out to the hydrants and (told firefighters), 'You can't fill up here -- you don't have a water agreement with us. You can't fill up,'" Gates said. "Then he was talking about shutting the water tower down and told us we were trespassing when we were trying to fill up at the hydrants."

Firefighting in Grandin is expected to come up at the next Grandin City Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11.