Bradley County fire officials report new recruits, rural internet push, rising brush fires and radio upgrade plans

Bradley County fire officials said the department has six people in its rookie school, is trying to expand internet service at rural volunteer stations, is responding to a surge in brush and grass fires, and is planning a multi-year mobile-radio replacement for frontline vehicles.

The county’s Fire Chief said the rookie school is in its second week and that new trainees will be based mainly near Dalton Pike with occasional training on Emmas Street. “We have 6 inside of our rookie school, that we are they're just in the second week of that rookie school,” the chief said. The chief added the department hired two people from the volunteer ranks, two with no experience and two from neighboring volunteer departments and called the recruits “a good crew.”

Officials said groundwork for a new station building is scheduled in the spring and the building is expected to arrive in summer. “The building is ordered, and they plan on doing the groundwork and all that sometime in the spring, in time to be ready for the building when it's delivered summer,” the mayor said.

Fire leaders described efforts to add internet access at county stations to support reporting and volunteer activity. The department currently has 13 stations but sometimes operates with fewer, and several rural stations lack internet, which hinders reporting and volunteer coordination. The chief said the department is contacting providers and exploring options for rural connectivity.

Volunteer recruitment and retention were described as improving. The chief credited outreach and a Tri-State mutual-aid grant with helping recruitment and retention in outlying stations.

Officials warned that dry conditions and recent weather have driven a rise in brush and grass fires. The chief said the department has been “running 20 calls a day,” most of them brush fires, and described recent incidents in the county's northwest. He urged residents not to burn trash and to observe burning rules.

Speakers described burn-permit rules and how restrictions or bans are declared. The chief said the state forestry agency issues permits and sets restrictions; a permit threshold was described as 3 feet by 3 feet for larger piles. “Restrictions means there's no permits issued that day. To have a permit, it's gotta be a 3 by 3 or bigger,” the chief said. The chief also said the last countywide charcoal-grill–level ban was in 2016 and that the state forestry office and county coordinate on restrictions or bans.

At the meeting the chief recounted a large fire last year and shared figures from the state forestry supervisor forwarded to the county: the speaker said the event involved dozens of acres of planted timber and grass, that 19 structures were saved, that there were no injuries and that the response preserved more than $3,000,000 in value. The chief called the incident a record for Bradley County and asked that the maps and a report be circulated to meeting staff.

On communications equipment, the chief and other speakers described a plan to replace aging mobile radios in county fire vehicles. The department has roughly 36 vehicles that would need new mobile radios; individual radios were described as costing about $4,500 to $5,000 each. A committee member estimated that, at current unit prices, an up-front purchase would be on the order of tens of thousands of dollars. Director Spence described the newer radios as reducing load on county towers and improving system performance compared with older units.

No formal vote beyond a routine approval of minutes was recorded on the radios or other budget items; the chief and the mayor said they and county finance staff will continue to develop options, including staging purchases over multiple years or seeking volume discounts.