Alexandra Berzon
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006 San Antonio Express-News
All Rights Reserved
An investigation into some fires that authorities suspect were set by firefighters in Primrose and Poteet has focused unwanted attention on volunteer fire departments -- a fixture of rural life that generally scrapes by, under the radar, dependent on community donations of money and time, but with no official oversight.
As the arson accusations spread last week, Poteet Volunteer Fire Department Chief Curtis Adams worried about the impact the allegations would have on the department.
“I’m afraid someone will say, ‘Why would I want to join Poteet or Primrose?”’ Adams said. “This could give us a black eye; people could say, ‘We’re not going to donate.’
“I don’t want this to ruin us. They were just bad apples.”
Former Primrose volunteer firefighter Jesse Rios Jr. has been charged with arson. According to law enforcement sources, five more firefighters from the Primrose and Poteet departments may soon be charged in connection with more than 20 brush and deserted building fires in Atascosa and Bexar county.
“It’s a kick in the butt,” Adams said. “It’s called trust. You train together, we meet twice a month here. When you’re at a house fire, your life is in their hands.”
There are around 1,800 volunteer fire departments in Texas, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Tracy Weaver said. Most exist in small cities or along rural stretches of highway, playing crucial roles in car crashes, brush fires and building fires and performing other key community services.
For personnel, they depend on a stable of volunteers willing to rush into a fire when called to duty. They rely on creative fundraisers, modest checks and a scattering of public funding and grant money for their equipment, fuel costs and other overhead.
According to a 2001 Texas Forest Service survey, 40 percent of volunteer fire departments receive less than $1,000 a month in funding. And they receive no required accreditation, no official oversight, no mandatory training.
The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas offers voluntary certification training to firefighters, which requires 167 hours of training in 31 different categories, plus a test.
According to a list provided by district certification officer and Castroville firefighter Jamie Johnson, in Atascosa County, only the Pleasanton Volunteer Fire Department has firefighters that are certified by the association.
“I keep track of [the Atascosa County fire departments] as far as responding and putting a fire out,” said Atascosa County Fire Marshal Chuck Garris, the one paid fire official in the county.
“I can audit the books if I want to, but as far as the internal running of the department, I leave that to them. As long as they answer fire alarms and do what they’re supposed to do, I don’t care who’s doing it.”
Garris said he is not concerned with Primrose and Poteet’s abilities to respond to calls, even with the controversies surrounding the departments. Primrose, which has only seven members now, responded to a small fire on Wednesday, Garris said.
“I don’t foresee them closing up,” said Garris. “There’s still a core group there that’s keeping it going. I’m still depending on them.”
Primrose volunteers could not be reached for comment, but earlier in the week members said the department was in disarray after the accusations and internal turmoil.
Adams said the Poteet department, with more than 30 people on the roster and 10 to 15 core, dependable members, is still fully intact. About six people responded to a car crash fire on Thursday, Adams said, and three members recently attended Texas A&M’s summer fire training program.
But area firefighters expressed concern that the accusations could make all volunteer fire departments look bad and could prompt the public to cut back on the funding those departments desperately depend on.
“Fire departments don’t need bad names,” said Johnson of the Castroville Volunteer Fire Department. “We’re supposed to be the good guys. We’re here to get your cat out of a tree and rescue you from a vehicle when it’s all crunched up, and when you lose that integrity and respect from the public, then you also lose their trust.
“This kind of thing has an impact on every fire department in the country. You get people who read a story about this and they start questioning their own firemen. It’s the domino effect.”
In Poteet, perception concerns are more acute. The department gets about $5,000 from the county and depends on the community for the rest of its funding. But the department also is dealing with sharp feelings of betrayal.
“We’ve got good people in our department,” Adams said. “I’m just hurt that we were getting some new blood in here to help us out and strengthen the department, and they pull stunts like that.”
Adams said he began to suspect arson after a series of after-midnight grassfires, which are generally rare.
Then he noticed one of his men was showing up to fires unusually early. When he found out the Bexar County fire marshal’s office was investigating the fires, Adams said he went to them with his suspicions and gave them photographs and other documents he had collected.
He wants to gain back the community’s trust by proving that this type of behavior won’t be tolerated in the department. It plans to screen its applicants much more carefully now, and its leaders are planning to put together a lengthy set of application forms.
“We’re gun-shy,” Adams said. “We got burned. It’s going to be tougher for people to join.”