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New partnership aims to help firefighters quickly respond to rural areas

The scrutiny on unincorporated areas comes after a deadly house fire Monday evening on Castlebrook Drive.

Posted Updated

By
Aaron Thomas
, WRAL reporter

An ‘unincorporated area’ is one that hasn’t been added to a city or town and they often lack fire hydrants.

There are still many areas in Wake County that.

For residents like Eddyles Jacinthe, who lives in the Foxcroft neighborhood of Wake County, it's a concern being in an area that lacks hydrants.

"My wife and i spoke last night, we would not want to have good people like that die in the future again," Jacinthe said.

The discussion around unincorporated areas of Wake comes after a house fire in an unincorporated area of Wake County at Castlebrook Drive, where two people died.

Last summer, Wake County made changes to help those areas.

In July 2022, an agreement was struck between the city of Raleigh and Wake County to ensure widespread protections, water supply, and rapid response times to unincorporated areas of the county.

The partnership was put into action for the first time at Castlebrook Drive Monday night.

"Multiple Raleigh stations were dispatched, along with tanker trucks from the county and an engine company from Wake New Hope," said Darrell Alford, Wake County Director of Fire and Emergency Services.

The rapid response was needed, as the closest hydrant in the neighborhood was 400 feet away. Most unincorporated areas, however, have no hydrants in close proximity.

Alford said decisions for zoning permits in areas without hydrants is up to Wake County.

"[It's] Wake County Zoning," Alford said. "Our office gets to look at those [zones]. We look at the roadways that go in and out to make sure they're wide enough to make sure fire trucks can pass, go in and come out at the same time."

In the past, only one fire department was responsible for providing coverage in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Residents, however, say fire hydrants shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Having more fire hydrants, I wonder if that would be a way for things to not happen in the future," Jacinthe said.

The cause of the Castlebrook Drive fire still under investigation.

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