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I'm working in remote areas of the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and while editing the area in TNMC I have run across many rural fire station markers (volunteer fire departments). However, I'm unsure how best to edit them. For example one of them has the name of an unincorporated community nearby, but there is no fire equipment there. The emergency management website for the county provides a map marker, but it turns out to be the water tower where the volunteers draw water to fight fires - no building or equipment there. The state emergency management website lists their contact as a P.O. Box in the nearest post office- some 25 miles away. I'm going to ask around about where the equipment is stored next time I'm in the area, but going forward, does anyone have any tricks for finding where best to place markers or for these fire stations? |
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Unfortunately, rural fire stations can be incredibly difficult to edit. Many of these stations don't have physical addresses or phone numbers, and often they are in remote areas where aerial imagery is out of date. Some tricks you can try include identifying a nearby business that does have a phone number, and calling to see if they can describe the location of the fire station (if they are familiar with its whereabouts). Or you can try calling the city hall or local water utilities company. I've found that contacting a city employee has often been the most helpful way to identify a rural fire station. Visually, they usually look like a large shed, no windows, with only one or two garage doors. If you can identify a similar structure in the imagery and then maybe identify a nearby business that you can call, you may be able to have a third party confirm the location of the fire station. Unfortunately there are no cut and dry tricks for identifying these! Thanks for taking on the challenge, and best of luck. If anyone else has suggestions, feel free to add to this thread. |
