Lee County Public Safety, Lee State Prison near fire response aid agreement

LEESBURG — Fire protection services throughout Lee County were improved this week when the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to allow Lee County Public Safety to enter into a automatic aid agreement with Lee State Prison.

Although it still has to be finalized and approved by the Georgia Department of Corrections, the new agreement will allow firefighters from the prison’s inmate fire department to automatically respond to certain fires within the county as soon as the call originates from dispatch.

“What this allows is for the Lee Correctional Institution to automatically respond to certain types of calls — structure fire calls, rescue calls,” explained Lee County Public Safety interim Director Wesley Wells. “That would allow them to respond initially, rather than waiting until we arrive on scene and determine that they’re needed.

“They would automatically respond and be on the scene quicker than a mutual aid agreement would allow for.”

In years past, inmate firefighters at the prison have served as volunteer firefighters who would respond to calls in the county through a different agreement. According to a memorandum from the county administration office, however, because of changes to the prison’s wardens and fire chiefs, the prison didn’t always have a fire department.

Currently, the prison has a local fire chief, three trained firefighters who are approved by the prison warden and a fire truck that are available to respond service calls in the community. Additionally, Wells said, the prison is working to increase its number of trained firefighters to eight.

“This is a common practice throughout the state of Georgia, throughout the country as well,” Wells said. “Mitchell County also does this as you know with Autry State Prison. “We’re asking you to approve this so we can send up the line of correctional institutes and get all the appropriate signatures in place so we can start getting this assistance.”

The commission voted unanimously to approve the agreement.