The Lansing Fire Department is withdrawing from a mutual aid agreement with the city and township of DeWitt.
Lansing Fire Chief Brian Sturdivant said the results of the agreement signed in 2018 have been one-sided.
Data obtained by WKAR through a Freedom of Information Act request shows the Lansing Fire Department responded to more than 150 calls in DeWitt from 2023 through 2024. But DeWitt didn’t respond to any calls in Lansing during the same period.
Sturdivant said withdrawing from the agreement was an easy decision.
“We do look for a level of reciprocity where if we’re in your community, then there’s a reasonable expectation – based on the language within the mutual agreement – that you, at some point in time, will be in our community,” Sturdivant said.
The calls from DeWitt account for more than 10% of the mutual aid calls Lansing responded to from 2023 through 2024.
Sturdivant said one of his priorities as fire chief is making sure the department makes decisions based on data.
“Out of all the mutual aid agreements that we have in place, this was the only agreement that was truly just one-sided,” Sturdivant said.
The department served DeWitt with written notice of its intent to withdraw from the agreement earlier this month, kicking off a 60-day countdown that ends in July.
Representatives for the DeWitt Township Fire Department and DeWitt Area Emergency Services Authority could not be immediately reached for comment.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.