By Jeff Shultz

Publisher

Garvin County Officials are encouraging county residents who want to have a controlled burn on their property to call in the incident to the County 911 office so area fire departments won’t be going on false alarm calls.

“We had three false alarms last week and they were all due to someone not notifying us of a controlled burn,” said Garvin County Emergency Management Director Bud Ramming.

Ramming said the false alarms are expensive runs for already struggling fire departments.

“Not only do these volunteers have to leave their jobs to go on a false alarm call, but the fire department has wasted fuel to go on the run as well as the wear and tear on the department’s equipment,” he said.

Ramming said if the false alarms continue, the county fire chiefs will most likely petition the county commissioners to adopt a resolution to make property owners pay for the fire runs when they don’t advise the 911 center of a controlled burn on their property.

“All they have to do is call 405-238-9900, which is the non-emergency number for the 911 Center, and let the dispatchers know you will be conducting a controlled burn and the date and place of that burn,” Ramming added.

The Garvin County 911 Center already is dispatching for all of the county’s fire departments.

“A simple call on a controlled burn will give our dispatchers the information they need so they won’t be dispatching a fire department to a controlled burn,” he said.