OLD MONROE, Mo. — Residents of Old Monroe are concerned about their volunteer fire department. Many were hoping to attend an Old Monroe Fire Board meeting Monday to talk with the department, but the meeting was canceled “due to an illness.”
Old Monroe residents said there have been several serious incidents where the Old Monroe Fire Protection District didn't show up or took longer to respond. The department said a lot of these challenges are not unique to them and something volunteer departments are experiencing across the state.
Resident Ian Heidemann said he's been worried about the Old Monroe Fire Protection District for some time now.
“I do have a lot of friends and family that are on either neighboring fire departments or other firing departments elsewhere that have said that they have either not shown up or there are very few people that show up or there is no response at all from anybody,” Heidemann said.
As a husband and father of three kids, he said he's concerned about what might happen if he needed to call 911. 5 On Your Side asked him if he thought the department would show up for him.
“In all honesty, I hate to say it. No, I do not think they would, or it would be very delayed and other neighboring departments would beat them here,” Heidemann said.
5 ON Your Side asked Old Monroe's Deputy Fire Chief Mike Cherry about it.
“They say it's been a pattern of problems, of people not showing up from Old Monroe. Would you agree with that?” 5 On Your Side's Laura Barczewski asked.
Cherry said, “I wouldn't agree with that, no. I mean, there has been some delays, but yes. I mean, every 100% volunteer department has that problem."
A former high-ranking Old Monroe firefighter told 5 On Your Side there was a lack of mutual aid agreements and automatic aid agreements.
Mutual aid agreements send the next closest fire department to the scene in case the responding department needs more help or if they're unable to respond. Automatic aid sends two or more departments to an incident immediately at the same time.
A first responder source in Lincoln County told 5 On Your Side in roughly the past two years, there have been 11 car crashes with a total of eight deaths where there was no mutual aid agreement between Old Monroe and neighboring departments.
Cherry said this has been corrected, but they, like many, other volunteer departments are in desperate need of volunteers.
“If you want to make a difference in your community, show up, volunteer. It is a major commitment for a lot of people, and there's a lot of training that goes into it,” Cherry said.
Another resident, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said he's truly worried about the community's safety.
“My main frustration would be that it took so long for it to be changed. There were a lot of lives put at stake for a number of years with refusal to change from the status quo,” the resident said.
The next public meeting for the Old Monroe Fire Board is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at the fire protection district, located at 5 Knights of Columbus Drive.