House fire: mutual aid is automatic

NEW LONDON – The New London Common Council approved an automatic mutual aid agreement with the Hortonville-Hortonia Fire District that will allow the Hortonville Hortonia Fire Department to respond to structural fires within the city limits of New London.
The agreement was approved at the council’s April 15 meeting. The agreement will also allow the New London Fire Department to respond to fires only in a specified area covered by the Hortonville Hortonia Fire Department.
The New London Police and Fire Commission had previously given its approval of the agreement.
Committee discussion
At the April 2 New London Finance & Personnel Committee meeting, New London Fire Chief Mark Wilfuer told the committee that the department would like to enter into the automatic mutual aid agreement with the Hortonville Hortonia Fire District.

“It makes a lot of sense, especially during the day, we have response times, we’re usually pretty shorthanded during the day, and we could have Hortonville coming to a structure fire in our city automatically without having to call and vice versa,” Wilfuer said.
He added, “It’s kind of a situation where we each help each other out. And we do a lot of stuff with Hortonville now already.”
New London City Administrator Chad Hoerth asked Wilfuer to explain to the committee why the New London Fire Department is shorthanded and how Hortonville’s firefighters are closer to their fire department building.
Wilfuer told the committee that the Hortonville Hortonia Fire Department has four firefighters who work across the street from the fire station.
“Those guys can respond right away,” Wilfuer said.
Wilfuer also clarified that under the agreement, the Hortonville Hortonia Fire Department would be responding only to structure fires within the city of New London. The agreement also specifies that the Hortonville Hortonia Fire Department would respond to a structure fire anywhere within the New London city limits, but the New London Fire Department would respond to fires only in a specified area covered by the Hortonville Hortonia Fire Department.