When the home of fellow Allegany residents went up in a blaze around midnight Monday, Howard Edwards grabbed his water pump. He rushed to protect neighboring houses.

He remained at the home up the West Fork of the Millicoma River for more than three hours. Firefighters from the Coos Forest Protective Association arrived and stayed 45 minutes to ensure a fire wouldn’t erupt in nearby trees. They and the home owners could only watch as the house at 67520 West Fork Millicoma Road burned.

Neighbors said the owners of the 1,672 square-foot home, Robert Yesser and Jane Cross, are staying at the Red Lion Hotel in Coos Bay. The pair declined assistance from the American Red Cross and was unavailable before press time.

The state will not investigate the cause of the fire, said Bob Wright, a supervising deputy for the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

He said he learned of the fire the evening it occurred and contacted the Coos Bay Fire Department, because it was the closest fire agency to the scene. But he has not been to the site and the state will not investigate the fire unless home owners request it.

CFPA’s firefighters aren’t trained nor equipped to battle structure fires. Nor could other local fire department have done any better — there aren’t any. The house and many others in Allegany aren’t included in any city or rural fire protection districts.

“It’s a way of life. That’s what you take with where you live,” Edwards said on Tuesday, adding he is aware CFPA’s hands are tied. “They’re not going to touch anything unless its burning trees.

“They wouldn’t let anybody die. But they have to go along with their bylaws.”

Even if Coos Bay fire trucks had responded, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference, said Fire Chief Stan Gibson. It would have taken too long to get there to save the structure and if they had gone, the city of Coos Bay would’ve been stuck with the bill.

“We would have been closest but there is no way we would have responded, because they are not paying for the service. They don’t belong to the taxing district,” Gibson said.

It’s a somewhat hazardous yet not uncommon situation for people residing in rural areas.

“For people who live outside of a fire district they may be saving money on their taxes. However they are paying increased costs for their homeowner’s insurance and receive no protection,” Gibson said.

CFPA is responsible only for wildfire protection in a district covering 1.5 million acres of private, county, state and Bureau of Land Management lands in Coos, Curry and Western Douglas counties.

Nils Storksen, the unit forester for CFPA’s Coos Bay office, said the association doesn’t fight structure fires because staff members are only trained for wildland fire suppression. They haven’t been trained to handle burning buildings.

“Even our fire trucks that we use, they don’t meet specifications required for safety standards,” Storksen said. “They don’t hold enough water. They don’t pump enough water. All in all, wildland and structure fire, they are totally different arenas.”

Rich Hoover, the State Fire Marshal’s public information officer, said residents in unprotected areas throughout the state do have an option. They can work together to start their own fire district. It just takes money, manpower and possibly a tax base.

“They just have to realize that if they want to form a district there will be some cost associated with that,” Hoover said.

He described another rural community in Central Oregon that faced the same problem. Residents founded the Three Rivers Rural Fire Protection District in June.

 “I just think they thought protection was a good idea,” Hoover said. “They didn’t want to be unprotected.”

Art Klingsporn, the chief of Three Rivers Rural Fire Protection District, said they raised money and passed a ballot measure to get the district started. Its directors also signed a mutual aid agreement for extra protection. Now, if a fire threatens the area, other fire agencies can lend a hand.

“We wanted help,” he said.

Although Allegany remains without fire protection, the issue of a fire district has been brought up.

A 30-plus year resident of Allegany, Edwards said locals discussed it some time ago.

“I’m sure after this there might be a lot more conversation,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea but you’ve got to have everyone involved.”