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ST. LOUIS — The call came in around 10 a.m.

The driver of a tractor-trailer had lost control on Interstate 44 near Shrewsbury, sliding into a guardrail then back onto the roadway. The rig careened across the highway, smashed into another guardrail and then came to rest with the cab teetering off the side of an overpass.

Fire-and-rescue agencies from Shrewsbury, Clayton, St. Louis, Brentwood, Maplewood and Webster Groves arrived to help rescue the driver of the Pepsi truck. Firefighters blocked the highway, suspended a ladder near the truck’s cab and pulled him out.

It’s not uncommon for multiple agencies to coordinate on such a dramatic event. But what’s troubling fire officials and others in the St. Louis region is that several agencies often are needed for more mundane calls: a one-alarm house fire, a bad car wreck or brush fire.

The vast majority of St. Louis County’s 43 fire departments and districts do not have the staffing or equipment to handle a house fire alone. It’s not uncommon to see four, five or even six agencies respond to such calls.

Some experts and officials say having so many agencies can create problems mounting a fast and cohesive response to fires and other emergencies. It means departments that often work together don’t have standardized training and policies or uniform staffing levels.

Some people want to change that.

Fire union representatives in St. Louis County recently pitched a plan for fire operations in 15 municipal departments — including Kirkwood, Clayton, Des Peres, University City, Ladue and Frontenac — to consolidate. Farther north, leaders in Ferguson and Hazelwood are considering a proposal to create a single fire district as those cities grapple with financial constraints.

But like any merger proposal in the St. Louis area, those ideas face an uphill battle.

Plans to consolidate department administration and form new districts have fallen flat in the past due to political opposition and other barriers. A broad St. Louis city and county merger proposal commonly known as “Better Together� initially considered combining fire services but later exempted districts from its final plan.

Consolidation talks are not unique to St. Louis.

Gary Ludwig, who is the fire chief in Champaign, Illinois, and previously led the Virginia-based International Association of Fire Chiefs, said talk of consolidating fire services happens frequently in many parts of the country, but few cross the finish line.

Still, experts and first responders on the front lines in St. Louis say merging operations may be the best way to deal with the rising costs and increased demands that go with modern emergency response.

“Everybody agrees we need to do something, but nobody wants to be that first person over the wall,� said Kurt Becker, a Clayton firefighter who represents 2,400 firefighters in the St. Louis metro area for the International Association of Firefighters.

Can 15 become one?

A report compiled by the International Association of Firefighters last year found 75% of fire trucks leaving stations in central St. Louis County were staffed below recommended levels, potentially delaying the time firefighters can enter a building to search for survivors or begin putting out flames.

Crestwood, Clayton, Webster Groves and University City have four-man companies that are recommended by national standards, but Brentwood, Des Peres, Frontenac, Glendale, Kirkwood, Ladue, Maplewood, Olivette, Richmond Heights, Rock Hill and Shrewsbury all have just three people, the report said.

The firefighters union commissioned the report to figure out what fire service may look like under consolidation. It examined current staffing levels, equipment and response times at those 15 municipal departments, and compared them to industry standards.

Becker said the savings in administrative costs that would come from merging the departments into one Central Metro Fire and Rescue could bring staffing levels up to national standards with a 7% increase in “frontline personnel.�

Meeting those standards is a necessity when fires burn hotter and more quickly than ever before, he said.

“30 years ago, you had 15 minutes to escape a house,� he said. “Today you have three to four minutes. That’s due to the volatility of how these homes are built and what’s inside of them.�

There are also practical considerations with merging beyond staffing, Becker said.

While the 15 departments currently work together on many fire-and-rescue calls, there are four different dispatch systems used within the roughly 57-square-mile area, potentially causing minutes-long delays when calling for mutual aid.

Having 15 different departments also means there are 15 groups of people who have not regularly trained together for emergency situations. It can also create a problem when a firefighter tries to grab a piece of equipment from the nearest truck and none are organized the same way.

“If the closest truck for you to get an axe or a hose is not your own, you’re going to be slamming doors just to find the right tools you need,� Becker said in a presentation to municipal leaders in April.

Discussions are still in the early stages.

Clayton City Manager David Gipson called the report “good information,� but said he and other leaders have lots of questions about how a single agency would be governed and how much it would cost.

The union’s proposal recommended each city pay $3.51 million for each fire truck they own. That comes out to an average $300,000 increase for each city, Becker’s presentation said.

But those numbers are not set in stone, and Gipson said he and other leaders need time to digest the information before formally discussing it. He also noted there were likely some recommendations that could be followed without full consolidation.

Kirkwood Mayor Tim Griffin said he was content to wait and see how the proposal played out.

“I think we have an excellent fire department here, and maybe there are some communities where they think the services are not as good,� he said. “We’re happy with what we have now, but we’re going to sit back and see what happens.�

In Des Peres, Mayor Mark Becker said in addition to concerns about cost, many of that city’s firefighters were in the unique position of being cross-trained as police officers, meaning they trade off working for both agencies.

“We’re very proud of our professional department, and this doesn’t appear to be cost-effective in providing any better level of service,� he said.

‘It’s really tough to sustain’

Financial considerations are paramount in another merger proposal farther north.

Hazelwood has struggled for years to get financial footing after attempting to cancel its contract with a fire district that served a third of the city for more than two decades.

The contract with the Robertson Fire Protection District, along with payments to another district and its own fire department, got so expensive that Hazelwood was % of its budget for fire services.

Robertson sued, and mediation is still pending.

But fire officials there and in Ferguson have talked in recent years about the potential for forming an alliance.

Under the plan, fire officials would ask municipal voters to allow them to form a fire district, giving them taxing authority separate from that of the cities.

Jeremy Corcoran, the assistant fire chief in Ferguson, said it would make financial sense for the cities. He said fire equipment is so expensive that it’s cutting into other municipal services like roads and parks.

“It’s really tough to sustain municipal fire service,� Corcoran said. “We are a huge item on a municipal budget.�

Officials estimated Hazelwood’s city government would save about $1.6 million a year under the plan and Ferguson would save $1.5 million.

Some residents aren’t pleased about the idea, though.

Nick Kasoff, an editor for the Ferguson Observer who has written several editorials opposing the fire district, recalled multiple corruption scandals with St. Louis County fire districts over the years and said he didn’t want to invite financial mismanagement.

“(A fire district) is just another public entity that someone has to keep tabs on,� he said. “Your average citizen has a hard enough time just keeping tabs on their municipality, and now you have something else.�

He also said the new district would require a property tax increase in a community where most people couldn’t afford it.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,� he said. “The city of Ferguson has a fire department that works very well.�

The merger proposal certainly would be a big ask — a tax increase of roughly $28.50 a month for a $100,000 home, Corcoran said.

But Hazelwood’s fire chief, Dave Herman, said the plan would allow them to have in-house ambulance service, which is currently provided by a private company.

“Of course elected officials (and voters) have to determine what they think is best, but any direction that it goes, I think we could create a good service,� he said.

There are still some legal barriers to that plan, though. State law requires contiguous borders when forming a fire district, and Hazelwood and Ferguson are separated in one area by just a few blocks.

Hazelwood is also still awaiting the result of mediation with the Robertson fire district, potentially changing the financial picture.

“I think it’s a long process that’s at the very beginning,� Hazelwood City Manager Matthew Zimmerman said. “It’s just a proposal on the table.�

While merging is a complicated process, some areas of the country have made it work.

Advocates of mergers often cite one example in Oregon as a resounding success.

Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue started by combining two fire districts in 1989 and it continued to add more agencies through 2006. Now it serves roughly 535,000 residents and 390 square miles.

A merged district has also worked back in Missouri, in Jefferson County.

In 2009, the Shady Valley and Springdale fire protection districts merged to create the , covering 19 square miles in unincorporated Fenton, Arnold, Imperial, High Ridge and House Springs.

Ludwig said such mergers can be done, but it requires a bit of creative thinking.

“I think reasonable people have to sit down and work things out,� he said. “There have to be people who come to the table with open minds and think about what’s best for taxpayers and firefighter safety.�