Rural Fire District 1 board approves submission of new fire suppression agreement

At its monthly meeting Tuesday in the Timmons Room of the Hill County Courthouse, the Rural Fire District 1 board approved a new fire suppression agreement for submission to the Havre mayor’s office.

Board Chair Steve Jamruszka said during the meeting that he would be submitting the proposed contract immediately following the meeting’s conclusion.

Rural Fire District 1 is essentially a ring around Havre in which the Havre Fire Department provides services under the current agreement.

The city announced last December it was canceling the current agreement effective July 1 so a new agreement listing who would enforce fire codes could be implemented.

The city and the district will be without an agreement effective July 1 unless a deal is reached before then.

People residing in the district will likely face increased fire insurance costs. The Havre Fire Department would also no longer be obligated to suppress fires in the district. 

Mayor Tim Solomon and Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulson said at a fire district board special meeting last week that the Havre department would still respond to fires, with the district billed directly.

Included with the proposed new contract was a memorandum of understanding which would be entered into July 1 of this year. Jamruszka said during Tuesday’s meeting the MOU addresses the city’s concern about code enforcement. Code enforcement has been the main issue from a new deal being reached.

The proposed fire suppression agreement would last from July 1 to June 30, 2022, after which it will be subject to renewal. The new agreement would automatically be extended for an additional year commencing July 1 of that year and ending June 30 of the following year, unless either party shall give the other written notice six months in advance, delivered by mail.

In the MOU, Jamruszka cites Montana code stating that the state fire marshall’s office will report and enforce fire issues and that the state Department of Labor and Industry Building Codes Bureau has jurisdiction of cities, counties and towns that do not have inspection programs certified by the bureau.

“It’s the Department of Labor and the fire marshal, state fire marshal’s office that is responsible for investigation and compliance,” Jamruszka said during Tuesday’s meeting.

“So at this point, there is enforcement, and the city doesn’t either want to partake in that, or they want to do something different and I’ve not heard back what they want to do,” Jamruszka continued.

Solomon said Montana law does give the district the power to enforce fire codes.

“There definitely are sections that they have authority to enforce to take care of the district,” Solomon told Havre Daily News Monday. “There’s buildings being built that aren’t meeting (code) and that’s what we’ve been discussing for a couple of years now.”

Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulson talked about the importance of meeting fire code and code enforcement in an interview with Havre Daily News Monday.

A concern is safety, not just for civilian community members but also the safety of his firefighters, and buildings being up to code alleviates a liability.

“One of the things in the county besides fire code is that we don’t know and we’re not notified of any building that’s going up and what it’s potentially being used for. So we’re responsible to go out and suppress that fire but we don’t know what we’re going into,” Paulson said.

He said the department does inspections in Havre to get familiarized with buildings, adding that every business in Havre has a pre-plan so the department knows what a building has in it such as flammable liquids and other hazards.

That isn’t the case in Rural Fire 1.

“One of these buildings had, you know, 10,000 gallons of oil stored behind the building that was on fire and we didn’t know that. And that became a big problem. Had that been in the city limits, we would have been aware of it and been able to build a tactic to build a tactic to handle that,” he continued.

Secondarily, Paulson said the impact of no deal becomes financial.

“If there’s no fire response … there’s a lot of places that would be uninsurable. Businesses would be uninsurable. If there’s no response at all, not just that the insurance goes up, but that their insurance companies can’t insure them,” Paulson said

At a special meeting June 1, Solomon told the board he’d be open to extending the agreement past the end of the month if the fire district board would meet with an attorney to research its enforcing the fire code.

Jamruszka said Tuesday that he had done so, having an information-meeting with Tyson Parman of the city attorney’s office, Hi-Line Law. 

“With potential conflicts of interest, Tyson and I were amicable with where our differences were and made no inferences on contract language or anything else. It was strictly an informational meeting. So again, without discussion, I don’t know where it’s going, but he has our input.” Jamruszka said.

Jamruszka said he cited in the meeting with Parman the Montana Code Annotated he cites in the memorandum, but had not heard back from Parman.

“So I have no idea what that side of the coin is driving at or what will satisfy them,” Jamruszka said. “We know this much, we’ve got a time crunch and we have to do something.”

In the event the proposed contract is not accepted, Jamruszka said, another option would be to contract with a different fire department.

Board Member Courtney Tait expressed concerns that rural departments fight grass fires, not structure fires due to training and lack of equipment.

Community member Neil Larson said during the public comment period the board could contact the state Attorney’s General Office about who has authority over fire codes.

“There are options and that certainly could be one of them. At this point, I haven’t looked that far yet,” Jamruszka said to Larson.

The city would have to call a special meeting of Havre City Council, which is not scheduled to meet again until July, to approve any agreement before the current agreement expires or to extend the agreement.

The next RFD1 board meeting is set for Tuesday, July 13, at 11 a.m. in the Timmons Room of the Hill County Courthouse.