That is because city boundaries are virtually invisible to dispatchers at the Johnson County Emergency Communications Center in Mission, which handles the county's fire and ambulance calls.
In an arrangement unique in the Kansas City area, those dispatchers send the closest fire unit to an emergency, even if that means tapping one city's resources to handle a neighboring city's fire.
This is a good thing for Johnson County residents.
The arrangement helps prevent a problem that exists in most of the country, where the owner of a house near a city boundary must wait for a truck from his own fire department, even if another city's fire station is closer.
The difference potentially can save lives and property.
Departments on the Missouri side of the state line don't automatically cross city boundaries. However, most departments have pacts that allow them to call one another for mutual aid when their resources are stretched too thin.
An automatic system is preferable in an ideal world, Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer said. Kansas City and North Kansas City are considering such a system. But Dyer said that, in a larger arrangement, some communities could take advantage of their neighbors by investing less in fire protection.
Firetrucks in Johnson County make it easier for dispatchers to ignore city boundaries by broadcasting their exact locations to the Emergency Communications Center. If a Merriam fire company is leaving a fire training center in Overland Park when a nearby apartment catches fire, it could be the first crew called.
That is what fire victims want to see, officials said.
"When a person's house is on fire, do they care if it says 'OPFD' on the sticker, or do they care if it's a red firetruck sitting outside?" asked Overland Park Deputy Fire Chief Bryan Dehner. "If they can show up and pump water, send them to this call."
