Sept. 10 -- The chief of the Healing Springs Volunteer Fire Department says the agency ended its initial mutual aid agreement with a nearby department in Rowan County to improve insurance ratings in the district.
Healing Springs Fire Chief Chris Bean sent an email to Terry Bailey, manager of the Davidson County 911 Center, on June 5, 2017, requesting that all Rowan County mutual aid be removed from calls within the Healing Springs Fire Department district. Previously, the Pooletown Fire Department in Rowan County would be automatically dispatched to fire calls in the Healing Springs district near the county line.
“We at Healing Springs Fire Dept. want to have all Rowan County Mutual Aid removed from our response. If the need arises, we will have them dispatched accordingly,” the email read.
According to Bean, the decision was made in an effort to improve the Healing Spring department’s insurance rating.
Shortly after the decision to remove Rowan County mutual aid was made, the department went through its annual ISO inspection, which Bean explained is an effort by the state to determine the minimum level of fire protection in a given area and contributes to homeowners' insurance rates. Factors including water availability, emergency communication and department preparedness are some of the things evaluated in these inspections.
Before the removal of Rowan County automatic dispatches, the Healing Springs department was rated at a nine. By removing Rowan County mutual aid, their rating improved to a six, Bean said.
Bean further explained that the removal decision to improve their rating was made primarily because the two counties now operate on different radio frequency systems.
“One of the reasons we can’t have Rowan County on our initial dispatch is because they’re on a different radio frequency. If we’re not on the same system as them, the state sees that we are not in direct contact with them,” he said.
With Healing Springs and Rowan County operating on two different radio systems, Healing Spring’s ISO rating is affected based on that emergency communication factor.
While Healing Springs is no longer allowing the automatic dispatch of Rowan County units, those neighboring departments can still be called for assistance if needed. Pooletown Fire and Liberty Fire are often called for fires near the county line, according to Bean.
Bean said the department has not seen any increase in response times or decrease in availability to its district without the assistance of Rowan County.
Bean said residents of the Healing Springs fire district were not informed of the decision at the time because these changes are not a matter of public record. Residents, however, are welcome to attend the department’s community day on Oct. 20 or the annual meeting in November at which the department announces these kinds of changes, Bean said.
Bean said the department hopes to pull Rowan County units back on to initial dispatch if and when Davidson County switches to the same radio system as Rowan County.
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