TUPELO • This place was home to Dereeser Armstrong for more than 30 years. Maybe one day, it will be again.
The brick, ranch-style structure sits on a quiet, wooded piece of land off Green Tee Road. Armstrong had the house built on land she inherited from her grandfather, Morton Thomas.
But almost a year ago, on Dec. 29, 2020, an electrical fire began near a back bedroom.
On a recent day, sunny but cold, Armstrong surveyed the scene. The brick veneer of the house still stands, but much of the roof has collapsed and the home is filled with burned rubble.
Armstrong was visiting a friend when the fire began around 8:30 p.m. Her adult son, however, was at home that night, and had to break through a window to escape the flames.
Following an 8:40 p.m. dispatch, volunteer firefighters with the Palmetto/Old Union Fire Department arrived on scene at 8:50, according to a written fire report. Those firefighters had to rely on water in a tanker. Armstrong’s property is just outside the Tupelo city limits and there are no hydrants in the immediate area.
Firefighters from the South Lee and Verona departments ultimately responded the scene as well. The blaze was eventually controlled but not before consuming almost all the possessions inside and much of the structure.
Walking around the property, Armstrong blinks and wipes away tears. The ruins of the house stand as a warning: Fires remain a potent threat.
In rural areas, the lines of defense against that threat have grown weak.
Across the country, volunteer firefighting rosters are threadbare
In Lee County, the numbers of volunteer firefighters are on decline, echoing state and national trends.
At many of the county’s volunteer fire departments, as few as three or four people regularly respond to calls, even if there are more names than that on the rosters.
“There are several departments throughout the county that are just not getting the response because they don’t have enough volunteers,” said District 1 Supervisor Phil Morgan.
In 2019, the National Fire Protection Association published a report showing that the number of firefighters reported across the country for 2016 and 2017 – the most recent years in the survey – was at the lowest level seen since the organization began counting in 1983.
Experts have pointed to a number of potential causes, including increased professional and personal pressures on potential volunteers as well as declining rural populations.
“A firefighter, they don’t get to pick the time they’re called,” said Marc Flanagan, Lee County’s fire coordinator. “People just don’t have the time to volunteer.”
Thin rosters mean weaker fire protection for local residents like Armstrong. They also mean higher risk for the volunteers who do show up at the scene of an emergency
“My concern is the fact that we’re getting to the numbers where it’s not safe anymore for the firefighters,” Flanagan said. “If there’s a chance of a rescue, someone has got to go in, and you can’t make entry with two people on scene.”
In Lee County, multiple departments are now routinely dispatched for any fire in the rural fire districts, and the units that eventually do arrive on scene may not be the closest.
This can make for long response times. And long response times make for grim consequences if lives are on the line.
“You’re coming that far, rescue is out of the question,” Flanagan said. “Now it’s a recovery.”
Volunteer firefighting crisis could imperil fire ratings
Lee County has 9 all-volunteer fire districts, which collectively cover the areas of the county not served by a municipal fire district. Residents of these districts pay a tax levy of 4 mills to support firefighting. In six additional districts located outside municipalities, that tax levy revenue compensates the local municipality for responding to bordering unincorporated areas.
Some districts have stronger participation than others. According to Flanagan, declining population on the southern end of the county has badly depleted the rosters there.
And beyond the risk from fire, there are potential financial penalties to pay.
Fire ratings influence insurance rates, and fire ratings are based on many factors, including the number of firefighters that are locally available, the number and type of trucks, whether fire hydrants are available and so on.
Some areas of the county have their fire ratings improve, but such improvements can’t be taken for granted.
“You can have a roster of 50 people, but if you’re only putting three or four people on the scene, it’s going to negatively impact your rating,” Flanagan said.
County could take more active role
The tax revenue generated by the fire district levies cannot be used to pay stipends or other compensation to volunteers, but county government itself could use general fund money to hire professionals.
“The supervisors know eventually it’s going to come to the point that we’ve got to hire or contract with someone,” Flanagan said.
Morgan, a long-serving Republican member of the Board of Supervisors, said conversations have come and gone about intervening to make rural fire protection more robust.
“We’ve got to look at it countywide and see what will save lives and help insurance rates,” Morgan said.
Paid firefighters could supplement the volunteers, or replace them altogether, though this latter move probably requires dissolving the fire districts, a power the supervisors do hold.
However, Morgan warned that there are “hurdles” to cross and questions still to be answered.
Local resident still picking up pieces
On Green Tee Road, Armstrong also faces some hurdles. She had allowed insurance to lapse on her property, which makes the prospect of rebuilding daunting. Local friends, family and church members have helped. Discussions about some kind of fundraiser remain ongoing.
“My plan is to come back home to my property,” Armstrong said.
For now, she’s back and forth between Lee County and Maryland, where one of her daughters resides.
On a return trip to Mississippi last month for Thanksgiving, she took a moment to reflect on a day that’s now complicated her life.
“I’m just thankful to be living,” she said.