Fire Department Changes Made Official By County

South Van Zandt Volunteer Fire Department will add a fourth station and more territory to its coverage area when the new year begins.

Tuesday morning, Van Zandt County Commissioners assigned the unincorporated area outside the Canton city limits to South Van Zandt VFD. The move put to rest a yearlong issue with the city of Canton, which was wanting a formal contract to continue its fire department services in that area.

South Van Zandt VFD President Tim Meredith said the department already has a strong member base in the Canton area.

"We have enough volunteer firefighters who live in Canton to take care of the coverage," Meredith said. "Besides our area, we have 12 committed in this area and 10 of those are career professional firefighters."

The commissioners rejected a five-year contract proposal from the city of Canton, which would have cost the county $20,000 in the first year and increased on a graduating scale to $100,000 in the fifth year.

Instead, starting Jan. 1, South Van Zandt VFD will become the first responder on fire and emergency calls for residents around, but outside of, the city of Canton.

Taking on that extra area spurred the department to set up a fourth station that will be located in a building at 231 W. Hwy. 243 (near the Highway 198 intersection) in Canton, after commissioners approved a six-month lease agreement with Power Funding.

South Van Zandt Cpt. Kyle Harris said the department is purchasing a 1997 Spartan Quality Fire Engine that can carry 1,000 gallons of water to serve as the primary vehicle for the new station. It will be supplemented with a brush fire truck, he added.

Meredith told commissioners the department required the 1,000-gallon capacity for a truck to be housed in the new station.

"Some departments don’t worry about that because they pull up to a fire hydrant when they answer a call. We don’t run up to a fire hydrant, and that is what steered us toward this truck," he said.

In return for South Van Zandt VFD adding the service area, the county will move the annual stipend it paid Canton Fire Department in past years to South Van Zandt.

The change in fire/emergency service will necessitate changes to maps used by the various fire departments as well as dispatchers at the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office.

Chief Deputy John Turner, present at Tuesday’s meeting, said the 9-1-1 system would have to be updated through that service’s coordinator with the East Texas Council of Governments.

Harris said the department would plan an open house event for the public at the new station "once we get everything settled in there."

Andy Flowers, a county resident at the meeting, commented on the importance of getting call activity information out to people in the new service area to garner financial support.

"There are a lot of people out here who do not see what the department is doing. They want stats, numbers of structure fires, grass fires and accidents, and that is going to be necessary to make people aware," he said.

Earlier in the discussion, Harris said mutual aid agreements — including one with Canton Fire Department — would remain in effect.

"We have mutual aid agreements with fire departments all around us. It is the way everybody has operated since I’ve been here," he said.

"This area in the past has been served by one station and there will still be one station to make those runs, and now there will be the resources of three substations at any point, if needed," said Meredith.

"If there is a structure fire in that area, the pumper truck will take the same amount of time to arrive and within 10 minutes, we can have three other engines at the location, plus mutual aid from other departments," he added.

Harris said a tanker truck is planned to be stationed in Canton within another two to three months.