Willow Fire Department in a tough spot

WILLOW — Between personnel shortages, ageing equipment and an investigation into the way a house fire was handled, the local fire department has hit a rough patch.

“It’s just kind of tough, there’s just a lot of things going on up there,” said Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services Director Dennis Brodigan. “I have asked our District II, West Lakes, to come in and assist Willow with the problems that they’re having and get them back on their feet again.”

On the understaffing front, Brodigan said he’s planning on a recruitment drive in the area to bring more firefighters on board.

That help from West Lakes will shore up their processes and training.

As for equipment, Brodigan says Willow may well have the oldest fire truck in the Valley, a 1973 tanker.

“We’ve run out of space in the station there, it’s very cramped. Their station is actually a very, very old portable school building,” Brodigan said. “We’ve outgrown it, we’ve outgrown the bays.”

Added to both of these challenges — a national group that ranks fire departments for insurance companies is set to arrive this year. A lot of borough fire departments use their scores from the Insurance Services Office as a way to judge how well their department is faring. Willow has a relatively low rating of 8b for some areas and 10 for others. A score of 10 is the same as not having a fire department and applies to areas of the community more than five road miles from a Willow fire station. Palmer and Sutton have similar scores. Lower scores tend to mean local residents pay less for homeowner insurance.

As for the investigation, Brodigan said it stems from a fire more than two weeks ago on Honeybee Lake Road.

“We had this house fire a few weeks ago that we’ve received several complaints from the public about, so we are currently investigating the circumstances around that fire,” Brodigan said. “We have both the owner of the house and the other bystanders who felt that there weren’t things happening that should have and there were things happening that shouldn’t have.”

Citing confidentiality rules, he said he couldn’t get into specifics of the investigation as it pertains to any specific personnel.

One of the complaints, Brodigan said, was that the fire truck that arrived took too long to get water onto the fire. He said that as far as he has determined, it took between three and five minutes to get the water flowing and that the preliminary indication is that the delay was due to a frozen valve. It was very cold that night.

“Your equipment freezes up and depending on the temperature it happens sometimes sooner rather than later,” Brodigan said.

It’s something all fire departments in the Valley contend with, he said.

Brodigan said response time was another complaint, but when the first responded arrived on scene the home was already 25 percent to 30 percent involved with flame shooting out a window.

“It was a tough fire to begin with, but we are investigating it,” Brodigan said, adding the fire is being looked at and the department will take appropriate action.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.