Lack of fire hydrants in Sunrise Beach causing problems

There have been two fires in Sunrise Beach in the last 30 days that have completely ruined two structures and they both happened where there are no fire hydrants in the area.

Chief Dennis Reilly with the Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District said if there were fire hydrants nearby the damage may not have been as severe.

“They are in areas of the district where there’s no readily accessible means for water and without water you just can’t fight fire. That’s our only measure of extinguishing fire,” said Reilly.

He said the reason there are no fire hydrants nearby is because many of the buildings were built after the code was implemented.

“In my opinion I believe that we could have been more efficient with the people we had, had there be fire hydrants that were available.”

Chief Reilly wants Sunrise Beach residents to know firefighters are working around not having water nearby.

“We’re going to continue to work to see if we can come up with alternatives and I think the enhanced dispatching is going to help us. It’s going to get more people there faster.”

With the new dispatching system , Reilly said the system adds multiple units to the initial dispatch, but they sometimes still get to a fire and realize they need extra help.