Friendly Fire Chief urges Newberry County to fund master plan, coordinator and paid staff to shore up volunteers
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Summary
Joe Palmer presented an assessment showing 264 volunteer firefighters and long apparatus response times for structural fires; he urged a county fire coordinator, a training officer, a master plan and possible millage (estimated 5–9 mills) to address staffing and equipment shortfalls.
Joe Palmer, volunteer fire chief for Friendly, told the council he conducted a months‑long assessment of Newberry County’s fire services and presented data the county records generate. “We’ve got 264 volunteer firemen in this county,” Palmer said, adding that about 94 of those volunteers are certified interior structural firefighters through the State Fire Academy. He urged the council to address gaps across three interdependent areas — stations and locations, rolling stock (apparatus) and staffing — and warned that weakness in any leg of that three‑legged stool makes the whole system unstable.
Palmer walked the council through turnout and response figures, including a county record of 320 recorded building fires used to analyze dispatch‑to‑arrival times. Citing the county’s ImageTrend data, he said dispatch‑to‑arrival for those calls forms a bell curve and “it takes somewhere between 9 and 19 to 20 minutes to get a fire truck to that location,” a window Palmer said is concerning given the speed at which deadly fire conditions can develop.
Palmer proposed eight core actions to stabilize services: create a county fire coordinator position, rework the Board of Rural Fire Control ordinance to give clearer authority, hire a county fire training officer, plan for rolling‑stock replacement, consider daytime paid apparatus operators or roving crews (QRVs), develop a master plan for staffing and station placement, pursue funding options including development fees, and evaluate a targeted millage. He estimated full implementation of his proposals could require “somewhere between 5 and 9 mills.”
Public comments backed Palmer’s diagnosis. Terry Russell, fire and rescue chief for Stations 10 and 15 in Chappells, asked whether the proposed millage would be ongoing or one‑time and requested the underlying figures; Paul Cromer of Fairview said life safety was his top priority and that Fairview would welcome two paid firefighters as a start.
Why it matters: Palmer painted a picture of a volunteer system stretched thin by aging apparatus, uneven staffing and long travel times in remote parts of the county. He and council members said an independent master planning study would help prioritize investments and define a feasible funding path.
What’s next: Council members expressed support for an independent facilitator or study to develop a master plan and funding roadmap; staff will provide the data and work with council to scope next steps.
