The History of Southern Jackson County Fire Protection District

Lotawana Fire Protection District History

The Lotawana Fire Protection District was established in 1975 with 23 volunteer personnel to respond on emergency calls from their homes. 

In 1979 the district was growing and in need of a new station to meet the need of our patron so the current headquarters was built on land donated to the district from the Lake Lotawana Development Co. This station was designed to house all the necessary equipment for the emergency calls and one or two volunteer staff to stay a night in order to respond on an average of 50 calls per year. 

In 1982 the ISO PPC rating for the district was set at a 10 and the district undertook the large task of lowering this rating to help our patrons with their insurance costs. So a fire hydrant campaign was kicked off and fire hydrants were installed around the lake every 1600 feet at a cost of $1,500 paid by the home owners. This campaign was successful in lowering the rating to a 7 which help the district and its patrons. 

In an attempt to keep the district moving into the future a new Fire Chief was employed in 1994 to make these changes. Some of the changes included accepting more volunteers which brought our staffing level to approximately 40. Also state certified training classes were provided to these personnel to make them qualified for the job. Training classes became mandatory one night every week for our personnel and new firefighting equipment like protective clothing, new fire truck, new fire boat, and new breathing apparatus to name a few. 

In 1998 the district purchased another new fire truck to replace the remaining outdated equipment. As the need for fire services grow along with more emergency calls for service there became the need for full time staffing. 

In 1999 we hired the districts first full time firefighter. Fire service standards set forth by the National Fire Protection 

Agency in 2000 became greater and more personnel would need to be hired so the second full time firefighter was hired by the district. 

In 2002 the district had some turnover in personnel and it was decided that some form of management should be hired to deal with the on duty personnel so a Deputy Chief was hired to work shifts and handle this need of the district. With issues in the local ambulance service the fire department began to prepare for the possible changes by hiring a third firefighter to fill the need and the district began working one firefighter 24 hours a day seven days a week. 

Our district conducted an ISO PCC rating audit in 2003 attempting to lower the rating with all the changes. During this audit the number of hours given by the volunteers assisted in lowering this rating from 7 to the current rate of 6. The local ambulance service closed in late 2003 and the district asked the voter to approve an ambulance tax and they did leading up to the purchase of our current ambulance in 2004. 

Additionally in 2004 the district hired 12 part time paramedics to bring the on duty crew staffing up to two personnel 24 hours a day seven days a week. 

During 2007, the district in an attempt to eliminate duplicate resources asked the voter to approve consolidating with the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District which the voters did not approve. In order to continue meeting the need of the district the Board of Directors elected to hire a full time Fire Chief in addition to the two personnel on duty every day.