Firefighters haul water to fires
By Bob Anderson
The Advocate
LIVINGSTON, La. — Emergency officials in Livingston Parish say rapid growth is outpacing their ability to fight fires.
The parish needs more fire hydrants and sufficient water pressure to fight fires in new subdivisions, Brian Drury, president of the Livingston Parish Fire Chief’s Association, said Tuesday.
The issue is one of safety and of fire insurance costs to homeowners, he said.
“We’re dangling by a thread with our fire insurance ratings,” Drury said.
Currently, firefighters have to haul water to blazes in many parts of the parish, which not only presents problems in fighting the fires, but also causes safety hazards on the roads, said Ronnie Cotton, director of the parish’s 911 Center.
Driving a truck containing tens of thousands of gallons of water presents a danger to the firefighter behind the wheel, Cotton said Tuesday.
“Running it on these curvy roads” also poses a hazard to the public, Cotton added.
“It’s a big-time safety hazard when you have a lot of firetrucks racing up and down the road in two directions,” Drury said.
Hauling water also eats up manpower needed to fight fires, he said.
The number of calls handled by the parish’s fire departments continues to rise, but the number of volunteer firefighters is falling, said Brian Fairburn, head of the parish’s Office of Emergency Preparedness.
Denham Springs Fire Chief Ivy “Woody” Cutrer said he witnessed a recent fire east of his jurisdiction in which there were 16 firefighters involved. Three of the 16 were fighting the fire, and “the rest were trying to manage the water problem.”
Drury said he would like to see a parishwide ordinance enacted that would require fire hydrants and pipelines of a sufficient size to supply water to those hydrants in all new subdivisions.
Parish Councilman Ronnie Sharp, who met the chiefs of the parish’s 11 fire districts Monday night, said after the session that such an ordinance deserves council consideration.
“I haven’t talked to anyone else (on the council) about it, but I feel it’s something that ought to be looked into,” Sharp said.
Joe Didier, president-elect of the Capital Region Builders Association, said good fire protection helps homeowners and builders as well.
A good fire insurance rating makes insurance less costly for homeowners and helps “if I’m trying to sell a house,” Didier said.
Drury said he’s worried that with continued growth, fire ratings in Livingston Parish would get worse if infrastructure improvements aren’t made to help fire departments.
That doesn’t just affect people moving into the parish, Drury said, but also longtime residents.
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