By MIKE TORRALBA
Charlotte Observer (North Carolina)
When a mobile home and a garage in western Burke County caught fire in March, firefighters from nearby districts did not try to douse the flames, saying the property was outside any fire district.
No one was inside either structure, but the incident enraged some residents of Longtown, an unincorporated community of 127 households on the edge of the Pisgah National Forest.
Worries that the next fire could be fatal are spurring some residents to make sure that someone responds. Seventy-six people signed a petition asking the Burke County Board of Commissioners to establish a volunteer fire department, said Terry Fleming, a Longtown resident who’s leading the campaign along with his wife, Regina.
Last week, Burke County Fire Marshal Mark Pitts presented the petition to the board. A public hearing is scheduled for June 6, and a vote could come immediately after.
Longtown has had to rely on firefighters from departments in adjacent communities. But those departments, such as Lake James and Oak Hill, are not required to respond to calls in Longtown, Pitts said.
In the case of the mobile home fire, firefighters from the adjacent districts responded to the fire at the request of the N.C. Division of Forest Resources, after the flames jumped from the home to nearby brush and began to threaten the wilderness area, Pitts said.
But by then, the home and garage were lost, Terry Fleming said.
Two housing developments are being built in Longtown, and three more are being considered, underscoring the need for the community to have its own fire department, Fleming said.
A volunteer fire department would also lower homeowner insurance rates, said Maynard Taylor, vice chairman of the Burke County commissioners.
Only Longtown property owners would have to pay taxes for the new fire district, Taylor said.
“The only major opposition would be if someone didn’t want to have their taxes increased,” he said. “That’s the only major concern.”
A volunteer fire department would cost between $50,000 and $70,000 a year to operate, Regina Fleming said.
Establishing the fire department would cost about 15 cents per $100 of assessed value, compared with 9 or 10 cents to operate an existing department. But funding should be easier as the new housing developments are built, she said.
Opposition to a new fire tax helped thwart a similar proposal to establish a Longtown fire department in the early 1980s. But now, Terry Fleming said, residents are united behind the petition.
Already, two other fire departments — one in Caldwell County; one in Davidson County — have agreed to donate one fire truck apiece to the new district as they bring in replacement trucks, Fleming said, eliminating the biggest initial financial hurdle.