As one Haywood volunteer fire department celebrates a big win, others struggle
The volunteers of the Saunook Fire Department pose proudly in front of their ladder truck after receiving their new ISO rating.
Kyle Perrotti photo
As the sun set behind the Saunook fire station in west Haywood County, members of the community gathered in the bay that would normally house the fire trucks and anxiously took their seats. They were told the news was good, they just didn’t know how good.
In front of the department’s impressive ladder truck, Terry Young, a ratings inspector who covers the North Carolina’s western counties for the Office of State Fire Marshal, came before the crowd, made up of firefighters and community members alike. He had in his hands the report that would reveal Saunook’s new classification rating, a number that both dictates property insurance bills and reflects the overall ability of the department to respond to emergencies.
The ratings, documented by the OSFM and used by the Insurance Services Office, range from 1-10, with 1 being the best and 9S being the worst rating a department can have and remain operational. During its last rating five years ago, Saunook was a 9S. Young informed the crowd it is now a 4.
“I’ll tell you this,” he said, “that’s very remarkable for an all-volunteer fire department.”
The joyous noise echoed off the high walls of the firehouse, making the crowd of about 60 sound twice the size.
But with increasing frequency, it doesn’t always go that way for rural fire departments. After months of scrutiny from commissioners and desperate pleas for mercy from its former fire chief, the Burningtown-Iotla Fire Department in Macon County had its contract canceled by a unanimous vote, leaving the Cowee Fire Department to absorb its jurisdiction and assets.
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Such consolidation is becoming more common and is indicative of the problems that have plagued rural departments increasingly over the last few decades, problems that have changed the way emergency responders do their jobs.
“The days of us responding with one or two departments is unheard of now,” said North Carolina State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor. “We may have four or five departments working on a structure fire because of the low manpower.”
Saunook
The night of Oct. 7, the Saunook Community Organization — which has backed the fire department’s efforts every step of the way — set up the celebration that followed Young’s announcement, including decorations, dozens of chairs, finger foods and all the fixin’s for an ice cream social. The planning, the turnout and the enthusiasm, in a sense, can explain the department’s success.
Following a prayer, former chief and Board President Benny Arrington took attendance, each firefighter confirming their presence with gusto. Next, Chief Chris Chandler came up to speak. He said that five years ago, after the department received the 9S rating, a serious conversation ensued about how to boost that score. Chandler took over the department in 2018 following the retirement of longtime chief Arrington.
“Five years ago, we started a very serious conversation about trying to improve that rate,” Chandler said.
The department set into motion several plans that were brought to fruition, including infrastructural improvements like bringing fire hydrant coverage to more of its jurisdiction and the procurement of a new fire engine, something that Chandler noted was only possible because of financial support from the community. Additionally, the department prioritized recruitment, retention and training.
“When I say that, I mean thousands of hours of training,” Chandler said.
Ratings Inspector Terry Young presents Saunook Fire Chief Chris Chandler with the department’s new ISO rating. Kyle Perrotti photo
Young broke down the new rating, which included scoring communications (which are run through the county), the fire department itself, the water supply, community risk and mutual aid response, which is provided by the likes of the Waynesville Fire Department and the Balsam Fire Department just over the mountain in Jackson County.
Young said there are already plans in the works for department leadership to sit down with ratings inspectors to determine what can be done to further improve. Finally, he had some quick words for members of the community. He became slightly emotional as he reflected on the fire department’s commitment.
“Love on these people,” he said. “They’ve worked hard, and they’re going to continue to work hard.”
Burningtown
In July 2024, the Burningtown-Iotla Fire Department failed a state inspection. The department was subsequently placed on probation by Macon County commissioners.
On Aug. 26 of this year, the OSFM conducted an unannounced inspection. The department passed with a 9S rating, but it wasn’t enough. At the Sept. 9 meeting of Macon County Commissioners, it was noted that a few days after the state inspection, commissioners Barry Breeden and Danny Antoine observed firefighters execute the procedure to haul water, often required in the rural fire district as hydrants can be few and far between. The standard is that firefighters should be able to establish a flow rate of 250 gallons per minute within five minutes of arriving on-scene, and they must provide continuous flow for two hours.
As the test began, there was a traffic collision call that necessitated a response, so former Chief Kenneth McCaskill headed out as the others stayed back to complete the procedure. While Breeden said he thought the effort was honest, he also thought there was a lack of leadership once the chief was gone, and the task was completed inefficiently. He considered that the anomaly was the perfect opportunity to see how the crew could respond during a quick change of circumstances.
“What we saw was a good effort. They’re good people, great women and men out there trying to do the best they can, but there was a serious lack of leadership, which I think was the perfect scenario,” Breeden said. “If the chief isn’t there, who’s in charge?”
Breeden and Antoine felt the department was not upholding the minimum standard, admitting that while they as commissioners may not have expertise in fighting fires, they consulted with people who do to try to develop informed opinions.
The vote to terminate the contract was unanimous, despite continued pleas from McCaskill to keep the department operational. Over the course of several monthly commission meetings he argued that there have been improvements and more work was being done.
Two days after that September county board meeting, Cowee Fire Chief Dustin Pendergrass issued a release confirming that it had entered into an agreement with the county to “ensure uninterrupted emergency coverage.” That statement indicated that BIFR isn’t fully cooperating and hadn’t yet granted CVFR access to its facilities; however, before long, the leadership of BIFR began working with Cowee, a department with over 60 members, to ensure a smooth transition.
Pendergrass, 41, has been Cowee’s fire chief since 2013. He is also a shift supervisor with Macon County EMS. Unlike some interviewed for this story, Pendergrass doesn’t come from a family of firefighters. It’s just something that interested him from a young age and quickly blossomed into a passion.
Earlier this year, BIFR leadership reached out to Pendergrass, he said, after they saw a decline in membership, so Pendergrass and a couple of Cowee board members gave a presentation at a BIFR board meeting about merging of the departments.
“We said we’re not trying to get rid of any membership or anything like that,” Pendergrass told The Smoky Mountain News. “If anything, we’d want to grow it.”
Pendergrass said the presentation was well-received, but BIFR ultimately balked at the idea of consolidation.
The moment commissioners voted to cancel BIFR’s contract, Cowee assumed responsibility for the Burningtown-Iotla jurisdiction. Pendergrass and County Manager Warren Cabe both said they felt like the transition has been smooth. Cabe added in a brief Oct. 27 interview that the process is “98% complete.”
“It’s been a relatively smooth transition and has went well,” Cabe said. “Both agencies came to the table and went through a mediation process and worked out an arrangement that was suitable and continues to provide the necessary services.”
Help needed
Arrington, Saunook’s former chief, was a founding member of the department 50 years ago. He recalled that when the community decided to establish a fire department, a member of the fire brigade at Dayco in Waynesville volunteered to serve as the chief and began assembling volunteers. At 22 years old in 1975, Arrington was recruited.
“They said, ‘Hey, look at Benny over there. He never goes anywhere,’” Arrington said. “So I was a captain at the fire department at 22.”
The department began with a sprayer truck used on the trees at Arrington’s Barber Orchards and a repurposed oil delivery truck outfitted with a small Briggs & Stratton pump that had to be manually wound before pull starting.
“We were down here on the bypass one day,” Arrington recalled, “and a car was on fire. We rolled up, and we're trying to get [the pump] started. They were cranking and cranking, and nothing was happening. Come to find out, the kill switch was in off. You knew it wasn’t going until you’d hear that putt, putt, putt.”
Arrington and crew set to work raising funds in the community any way they could — pancake breakfasts, spaghetti suppers and every other manner of cookout. They approached Haywood County commissioners about getting a fire tax; however, the elected officials were leery of asking residents to pay more since they’d just built a new hospital.
Department leadership found out that they could put it to a referendum if they got enough signatures from residents of the fire district. They did, and the measure passed overwhelmingly, with Arrington saying only two people voted against it. Saunook Fire Department ordered its first legitimate pump truck in 1977 and gained a 9 rating. In 1982, it got a tanker, and every five years or so it upgraded its equipment, all the way to where it is now.
“You’re looking at a million-dollar truck,” Arrington said proudly, pointing at the ladder truck that served as a backdrop for the rating announcement, deep red and shining like a polished apple.
Arrington’s decades of experience make him well-equipped to talk about changes to firefighting over the last five decades. One of the most noticeable trends has been a steady decrease in volunteer membership at rural departments across the nation.
A lack of consistent volunteers was one of the problems that plagued the Burningtown-Iotla Fire Department. When it failed its state inspection, part of the reason was that it had below the 19 minimum required active members.
Several larger departments elsewhere offer a decent wage, so once someone is trained up at a department like Saunook — which is all-volunteer — they may find that they want to be a career firefighter in another area. Arrington noted that he’s seen people leave to become firefighters in Greensboro and Charlotte. Likewise, Pendergrass said that he has lost younger firefighters seeking a department where they will answer a higher volume of calls, more chances to gain experience in high-intensity situations.
The times, they are a-changin ’
Taylor, who along with being the state fire marshal is the Vice President of the National Association of State Fire Marshals, said North Carolina is the only state that does its own Insurance Services Office inspection ratings for all fire departments that serve a population of fewer than 100,000 people. The OSFM now inspects 1,200 fire departments every five years, meaning no one has a better understanding of big-picture trends in firefighting.
Taylor was also a career firefighter before assuming his current role.
“It all starts with leadership,” he said. “Most of these volunteer fire departments are private nonprofits, and there has to be an investment from leadership.”
Like with BIFR and Cowee, Taylor said he’s seen an increase in departments combining when one struggles to operate.
Echoing sentiments expressed by many in leadership positions at fire departments, Taylor said finding volunteers used to be easier when people from the community — farmers, store owners, tradespeople — could get away from work when a call came in. Pendergrass recalled that when he was a volunteer at age 18 and working at The Sunset restaurant in Franklin, if there was a call, he was able to put down whatever he was doing and go to the scene. Most employers now don’t abide such a sudden absence.
“That’s different in today’s world,” Taylor said.
Taylor said a solution the state is pushing to aid in recruitment is promoting and growing youth programs. High school students in some areas are able to take firefighting courses as part of their curriculum, so they have minimal training between graduation day and when they can become certified.
Volunteers set up for the event at the Saunook Fire Department. Kyle Perrotti photo
Because state law dictates that counties don’t necessarily have to maintain control of fire departments, many jurisdictions have different approaches to funding and operating these vital organizations.
Some counties, including Macon, have separate fire districts, each with their own tax rate. Jackson County not only has a relatively high number of paid firefighters, but it also is shifting to a model where the whole county pays one flat tax rate for that coverage. Where some rural departments like Saunook are all-volunteer or may have just a couple of paid personnel, Jackson County has 40 firemen between its seven stations on payroll and shells out a total of about $6.5 million per year.
“The biggest thing is we want to decrease insurance rates; our goal is to get that as low as possible,” Jackson County Manager Kevin King said.
But where some have turned to paying firefighters and others have opted for consolidation of departments, some, like Saunook, still manage to survive the old-school way.
Some blame the overall lack of volunteerism at fire departments on a lack of community engagement that seems to have existed in prior generations. The people interviewed for this story all agree that, along with changes in employer demands, the decline in community cohesion, which leads to investment and engagement, is the major issue.
For a department like Saunook, the strength of the community is reflected in the spirit of volunteers, which was on full display at the fire station the night the new rating was announced.
Among the proud firefighters who gathered was Eric Rutherford. A few years ago, Rutherford was so taken aback by the commitment he saw on display by the firefighters in his new community and decided that after 59 years and not a minute of firefighting experience, he would join the department. In a prior life, he’d had a career as an air traffic controller in the Atlanta area, but when he moved to Haywood County, he was happy to find something worth dedicating himself to. And he doesn’t regret it.
“This is the most awesome group of guys I’ve ever worked with,” he said.
