Novi, Wixom Fire Departments Form Partnership

The City of Novi and City of Wixom Fire Departments will now automatically help each other out when needed.

The Novi City Council passed an agreement Monday that allows the two fire departments to provide mutual aid automatically with no extra cost.

The agreement provides an engine or ladder from Wixom and sends it automatically to any confirmed structure fire in the Northwest sectors of Novi. In return, Novi will automatically provide an engine or ladder to Wixom in the
Southeast quadrant of their community. The cities will also send two personnel to the scene.

This agreement is different than the Oakland County and Western Wayne Inter-Local/ Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) Agreements that Novi has already adopted because those require multiple alarms to be called when a large scale fire requires more resources, whereas the new agreement allows for automatic response.

"I think it's the next generation and the next level of service and the way of the future in terms of not every community can afford to provide all of this equipment that's by and large on standby and needed," said Novi City Manager Clay Pearson, at the meeting.

You can view the response areas where the cities will provide automatic aid in the map above.