News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Clay County Officials holding Community Safety Meetings to update the public on the future of the Pea Ridge Fire Department.
Clay County Emergency Management Director Kyle Haney said the Tennessee Fire Marshall’s office no longer recognizes the Pea Ridge Fire Department after a pattern of systematic flaws. Haney said he hopes the meetings help to educate the community on what the department is going through and what they can do to help.
“Whether they want to come join the fire department or just want to volunteer time to improve the capabilities such as the function of the building,” Haney said. “Essentially, the volunteer fire departments are the communities themselves, so I just want to let them know what is going on and that we’re trying to fix it.”
The Department failed to submit a financial report to the State Comptroller’s Office and received 18 calls since March 2017 that were not reported to the National Fire Incident Reporting System.
Haney said the Pea Ridge Department has indicated that they have now submitted all paperwork, and Haney expects the department to be operating again in a week or two.
Haney said the Pea Ridge Fire Department is not receiving pages for incidents and Celina Fire is taking on the additional responsibility for now.
“Essentially, they’re well staffed and they had already provided mutual aid to Pea Ridge anyway,” Haney said. “So, anytime that Pea Ridge had a call, Celina came to help them anyway. They’re just taking on a little bit more responsibility being that it’s out of their district, and they’re going to take the lead role until we can get Pea Ridge back up and operating.”
He said he and several Clay County Commissioners will visit the Pea Ridge Fire Hall Wednesday night and try to identify areas that can be improved. He said they will report findings next Monday at the next Community Safety Meeting.
“They need our attention and we need to focus and get the community back supported into helping them,” Haney said.
