The history of fire protection in the Purdy, Missouri area goes farther back than we have been able to trace in our attempts to discover the roots of the fire service in our area. As best as we can find, fire protection for our town was provided by a county-wide fire department until the 1960’s. This department consisted of multiple stations across Barry County providing service to many of the sma
ll towns and rural areas. In the 1960’s, the Purdy Lion’s Club took the Purdy Fire Department as a project. The Club provided the funds for equipment, fuel, and other costs while various members of the Club and citizens of the area provided the manpower. In the 1970’s, the City of Purdy took over operations. The Purdy Fire Department operated financially on two income sources. The City of Purdy provided a budget derived from the general revenue fund for operations within the City. Those outside of the City in the rural area paid a membership due to provide funding to cover rural operations. The City/Membership-Based system operated for approximately 30 years. In 2007 firefighters presented a tax-based system. This was actually the second attempt at such a system. Voters overwhelmingly approved of the tax-based system, which was reorganized as the Purdy Fire Protection District. This was a dramatic improvement, taking the annual operations budget from $20,000 per year to approximately $65,000 per year, providing a stable and adequate funding mechanism for years to come. With the formation of the District, the City relinquished firefighting operations and equipment to the District. Since that point in time, fire protection has been provided by the District. In the years since the District was approved, we have been able to add a second station to better serve areas of our district that were in excess of 5 miles from our primary station. The Purdy Fire Protection District has made great strides in providing services to our community. Originally providing only fire protection, the organization began running emergency medical responses in the 1990’s to supplement the ambulance service located 10 miles away. That service was expanded in 2008 when the District became an Emergency Medical Response Agency (EMRA), a licensure with the state of Missouri’s Bureau of EMS that allows our paramedic staff to provide Advance Medical care. The District has also allowed the expansion of services to cover operations-level hazardous materials response and vehicle rescue response due to the addition of “Jaws of Life” and associated equipment, structural collapse rescue, and swift-water rescue.
