PBFD sees 30% spike in structure fires, staffing shortages

This is the second story in a two-part series about Poplar Bluff and Butler County fire chiefs reflecting on the last year and looking toward 2020.

A county fire department need for volunteers was discussed in the Friday edition of the Daily American Republic, while part 2 looks at city firefighters facing a spike in structure fires with a 22-year-old ladder truck.

Big expense for needed equipment

At the Poplar Bluff Fire Department, chief Ralph Stucker said, “We’ve got a great department and great personnel. They do a tremendous job for a great community.”

Looking toward 2020, Stucker said, he hopes to see a new ladder truck added to his fleet to replace one that is almost 23 years old.

“Mechanically, it’s showing its age, and it runs on at least 80% of our total calls,” said Capt. Steve Burkhead.

“We’ve tried three different grant cycles and have been denied on every one of them,” Stucker said. “It’s very competitive.”

Stucker said he’s been “checking with the local banks to find out how much it might cost us per year.”

The potential new truck, Burkhead said, must have a longer ladder than the 55-foot one on the current truck.

“We need a 75-foot truck to replace that because of the structures that have been built in the city and the offset of our houses,” said Burkhead. “Our houses sit farther off the road.”

The big problem, Stucker said, is the new truck likely will cost around $850,000, and funding “will have to come from the city,” so it may not happen.

The department’s compressed-air foam system truck will see an upgrade in 2020, which will be especially beneficial for any potential calls at the airport, where there may be petroleum issues to contend with, Stucker said.

Stucker also hopes in the coming year to get his department involved with a tri-state recruitment alliance, which draws applicants from Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.

In a recent bid to hire a new firefighter after the retirement of another, Stucker said, he had only one applicant.

“Recruitment has been a problem,” he said.

Looking ahead, Stucker said, the department in the next seven years will likely lose 10 staff members to retirement, creating a bigger problem.

“It worries me a great deal,” he said. “Knowing what’s coming, we’re not getting any applicants to match that.”

Call numbers, structure fires up

While Butler County’s fire call numbers were down in 2019, calls at the Poplar Bluff Fire Department have gone up.

“Our calls have gone up quite a bit,” said Stucker. “Between 2012 and 2019, we’ve gone from around 649 calls to somewhere in the 930s now.”

Over that time period, Stucker said, structure fires have gone up 30%, as have the number of accidents with injuries and EMS calls needing firefighters.

A growing population is partly responsible, Stucker said, but the age of the city’s buildings is the primary problem.

“The town is getting older,” he said. “Structures are getting older and less maintained, and we have a tremendous amount of vacant and derelict buildings.”

Poplar Bluff also has a larger homeless population than in years past, Stucker said, and in the winter months, those people “are going to find some place to get shelter. If it’s cold enough, they’ll do whatever they have to do to warm up, including starting a fire. That’s human nature.”

Vacant buildings, Burkhead said, must be treated as if somebody may be inside until firefighters confirm otherwise, taking up valuable time while searches are conducted.

“Our training dictates that we operate on a vacant structure differently than we do on an occupied structure, but in these situations, we have to operate the same until we can confirm there’s nobody there,” Burkhead said. “We’re using the same manpower and tactics.”

Staff shortage raises safety concerns

The increase in calls and vacant structures, Stucker said, ties in directly to what he sees is his biggest concern: staffing.

“Our biggest challenge is a lack of manpower,” he said. “Since the late ‘90s, we’ve had a reduction in staff of 15.2%.”

At the same time, “we’ve got Eight Points, the hospital and other places where the town has built up, and we’re doing it with less. It makes it challenging,” Stucker said.

The National Fire Protection Association, essentially a firefighter’s governing body, dictates residential fires have 15 to 17 personnel on hand, but Poplar Bluff’s department can’t achieve that standard.

“If we’re fully staffed on any given day, we have nine people working,” Stucker said.

“Nine is our best, and we can be as low as six,” added Burkhead.

Because of the manpower shortage, Burkhead said, department “captains and battalion chiefs are forced to make decisions that don’t go along with the standards and training we have for safety.”

An example, he said, occurred in early October, when a house of the south side of town and a motel on the north end experienced fires at the same time.

“Other crews were tied up, and we were the first on scene,” Burkhead said of the south side house fire. “I made my 360-inspection as quickly as possible, and we located the fire inside a garage with no windows. I had to make the decision that myself and (another firefighter) had to go in without another truck there because we had to start a search (for anyone who may have been inside).

“We couldn’t stand at that doorway - morally, ethically or in the eye of the public - and wait on a second truck to show up. We’re forced to make those decisions because we don’t have the manpower.”