(A) (1) The Fire Department in accordance with any regulations the town’s Board of Trustees may prescribe may respond to calls outside the town limits. In answering calls outside the limits or performing fire prevention, rescue resuscitation, first aid, inspection or any other official work outside the town limits, the Department shall be considered an agent of the state and acting in a governmental, capacity. The town shall not be liable for any act of commission, omission or negligence in answering, returning from or performing such work outside the limits.
(2) The property owner (whether it be of land or personal property) shall be the person or company billed for the services performed by the Volunteer Fire Department. The only exception to this billing is for services performed on the Turner Turnpike for which the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is billed.
(Prior Code, § 13-211)
(B) (1) The town is hereby authorized and empowered to enter into contracts or agreements with individuals, firms, private corporations or associations, or political subdivisions of the state for fire protection outside the corporate limits of said town, and to contract to provide fire protection jointly with other organizations and municipal subdivisions of the state.
(2) Any contract entered into by the town with an individual owner, firm, private corporation or association, for outside aid or mutual aid for fire protection, shall provide for the payment by said owner, firm, private corporation or association, or political subdivision. All moneys received from said calls shall go into the General Fund to be used to pay for Fire Department expenses.
(3) The Fire Department of the town is hereby authorized and directed to answer all outside calls within a distance of five miles from the nearest fire station; unless in the opinion of the Fire Chief it is inexpedient to do so on account of another fire in the town, broken apparatus impassable or dangerous highways or other physical conditions.
(4) All firefighters of the Fire Department of the town attending and serving at fires or doing fire prevention work outside the corporate limits of the town, as herein provided, shall be considered as serving in their regular line of duty as fully as if they were serving within the corporate limits of the town and said firefighters shall be entitled to all the benefits of any firefighters’s pension and relief fund in the same manner as if the firefighting or fire prevention work was being done within the corporate limits of the town.
(5) The Fire Department of the town, answering any fire alarm, or call, or performing any fire prevention services outside the corporate limits of the town shall be considered as an agent of the state and acting solely and alone in a governmental capacity, and said municipality shall not be liable in damages for any act of commission, omission or negligence while answering or returning from any fire, or reported fire, or doing any fire prevention work under and virtue of divisions (B)(1), (B)(2), (B)(3) and (B)(4) above.
(6) All motorized equipment of the Fire Department of the town shall have the right- of-way over all other commercial and pleasure vehicles.
(Ord. 85-4, passed 4-6-1985; Ord. 9-1, passed 9-1-1987)
Statutory reference:
Mutual aid, answering calls outside limits, see 11 O.S. §§ 29-106 to 29-109