When there’s a fire on your property, you don’t really care who comes to put out the fire, just how fast they can get there. A new mutual aid agreement between local fire departments has been drafted to increase response time to structure fires and to improve firefighter and civilian safety.
The agreement is between the City of Port Huron, City of Marysville, Port Huron Township, and Fort Gratiot Township. The departments will automatically respond to structure fires in any of the jurisdictions.
To facilitate the mutual aid agreement, St. Clair County Dispatch has adjusted its procedures and modified shared communications, equipment, and tactical responsibilities.
The goal is to get a minimum of fifteen firefighters on the scene of a structure fire in the fastest time possible. The mutual aid agreement will be re-evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency in six months.
The mutual aid agreement was put into practice on Thursday, February 17th, when the departments responded to a fire at the Dunn Paper plant in the City of Port Huron. The agreement went into effect on February 16th.
Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland
