Fannin County Court asking for fire-watch volunteers at courthouse

BONHAM, Texas (KXII) - If the Fannin County Courthouse is open, a designated person must be there searching for a fire.

“Not necessarily any special qualifications to this job,” Fannin County Judge Newt Cunningham said. “We are delighted to hear from anybody who might be interested in volunteering.”

Judge Newt Cunningham announced at Tuesday’s commissioner’s court meeting the need for more fire watch volunteers.

Cunningham says that the role is fairly straightforward. The watcher walks around the courthouse and keeps an eye out for fires.

The courthouse requires a fire watch because the building was declared an imminent danger earlier this month after undergoing a $29 million renovation, approved back in 2016 and finished in 2022.

“The imminent danger doesn’t relate necessarily to people in the building,” Cunningham said. “It primarily deals with firemen who might be coming to the building and the sprinkler systems not being on.”

The court was given the option of evacuating the courthouse or conducting a fire watch while they work on fixing the issue.

“We don’t want to evacuate the building, and we certainly want to continue to utilize it,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said that the court is still actively working on fixing the problems, and they are hopeful that the issue will get corrected with no additional costs to the taxpayer.

“I have reached out to the contractors involved,” Cunningham said. “I’ve reached out to the engineers. We’re going to have a meeting and discuss getting it fixed, and that’ll be done in short order.”

If you’re interested in helping out, you can email Judge Cunningham at countyjudge@fanninco.net or call the courthouse to get more information.

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