Many volunteer firefighters from rural fire departments in Sequoyah County heated up the Sequoyah County Commissioners’ meeting Monday when they complained that a report about their certified training was inaccurate.

The report on National Incident Management System (NIMS) training was delivered by Chris Keathley, Sequoyah County Emergency Management director. He told the commissioners last week that he received a letter from Pat King, a fireman with the Oklahoma City Fire Department who also works part time for Homeland Security. The letter indicated only six rural fire departments were in compliance with Homeland Security requirements, Keathley said. If the rural fire departments were not in compliance with the Homeland Security requirements, the county stood the chance of losing federal and state grant money.

But the volunteer firefighters said that was incorrect, and that most had taken the training. Since that training was not reported to the federal agency — Homeland Security — the federal officials apparently believed the training was not completed.

Since Monday, the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security announced that 33 workshops have been planned around the state to explain NIMS compliance requirements. Gary Davis, state NIMS coordinator, listed the topics to be discussed at the workshop in a letter to the county. The topics include:

—NIMS compliance requirements for county, local, tribal and volunteer organizations

—The distribution of and discussion about the 2009 NIMS procedures manual

—Recording agencies’ assessments of NIMSCAST

—Regional response system information

—The activities of the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security

A workshop will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. May 15 at the Sequoyah County Fairgrounds in Sallisaw. Another meeting will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. May 14 at the Indian Capital Technology Center in Muskogee.

Ernie Moore, Eastern Oklahoma Development District volunteer fire department coordinator who assists rural fire departments, explained Monday the problems about training and reporting training.

All the rural volunteer fire departments in the county are autonomous, and the majority of firefighters work for no or few benefits.

Moore explained that fire departments that serve cities and towns are Title 11 departments and work with their city and town officials.

Rural volunteer fire departments, which do not receive benefits of any kind, are Title 18 fire departments.

Rural volunteer fire departments whose firefighters receive a few benefits, such as retirement pay after 20 years, death and other benefits, are referred to as Title 19 fire departments. The Title 19 fire departments are those which Homeland Security wants to be NIMS trained and certified. City and town fire departments meet the requirements through the city and town and Title 18 are not required to take the training, and their firefighters receive no benefits.

Moore explained that Homeland Security officials do not realize that the rural volunteer fire departments are autonomous, meaning they report to no one but their own boards of directors.

He said after 9/11, Homeland Security was organized and for two years allowed EODD to keep track of NIMS training.

“Then they (Homeland Security) decided to do it themselves,” Moore said, and communication problems followed. In the meantime, Homeland Security and others laid more and more requirements upon the volunteers.

“The fire departments are getting overwhelmed,” Moore said. “When my volunteer firefighters are trying to be certified, they are taking time away from their families and their jobs.

“We encourage the fire departments to be NIMS certified,” Moore continued. “Volunteer firefighters will do anything you ask, but if you try to pressure them, it doesn’t work.

“Somebody really needs to look at who made that decision (about NIMS requirements),” Moore said, in relation to volunteer fire departments.

Moore pointed out that the list of NIMS-certified fire departments sent out by King was taken from an old list the EODD had on file from the two years that agency kept records. Since the EODD doesn’t keep a list of NIMS-certified fire departments any more, he said the list may be wrong, and probably more fire departments were NIMS certified than were listed.

Robert “Bob” Jones, executive director of the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, said the following Sequoyah County rural volunteer fire departments are Title 19 and required to be NIMS certified: Blackgum, Brent, Maple, Lee Creek, Nicut and Redland. Jones added more departments may be certified than are on his list because his list is also old.

Moore said he believes, but is not certain, that the following Sequoyah County rural volunteer fire departments are NIMS certified: Brushy, Brent, Blackgum, Rural Fire District No. 1 at Gore, Marble City, Lee Creek, Maple, and West Tenkiller. The Brent, Marble City and Redland fire departments fire chiefs confirmed they were NIMS compliant.

“The list may not be real accurate, but we work with all the fire departments to help them make themselves certified,” Moore concluded.

Moore said the fire departments may fill out and file a form that can be found on the Internet to report their NIMS certification to Homeland Security.

Hilton Hixson, Marble City fire chief, said the Marble City volunteer firefighters took the required training and all passed the test last weekend.

He voiced firefighters concerns’ about the NIMS requirements, and lack of communication.

“They are not going to take over our fire department, I can tell you that,” Hixson told the commissioners Monday.

Keathley emphasized he did not want to tell the fire departments what to do, a sentiment echoed by the county commissioners.

But Keathley explained that, if Homeland Security was unaware of the NIMS certification, that agency could take grants away from the county.