The Johnson County Fire Protection District #2 was first known as “Western Jo-Co Fire Association, Inc.” and was incorporated on August 6, 1979 as a General Not For Profit Corporation. The volunteer fire protection service was created for the residents of the area of western Johnson County Missouri, including Jackson Township, Kingsville Township, Madison Township and Rose Hill Township. The first Board of Directors consisted of 9 members; Lowell Smith, Elmer Bradley, Arthur Barnett, A.H Van Meter, Jim Carlyle, Jerome Heiman, Keith Carlyle, Ray Timmons and Ray Dechman. At that time the City of Kingsville had passed a resolution providing for the Association’s use of City Hall for office space and housing for fire equipment. Memberships were purchased for each house, separate farm acreage or separate enterprise owned by the member if protection was to be given to any other than that originally specified.
On Feb 2, 1982 a petition was filed with the Circuit Court of Johnson County, Missouri to form a tax supported fire protection district and for the organization of the “Johnson County Fire Protection District No. 2” to be put on the April 1982 election ballot. In the April 1982 election; voters were in favor of incorporation of the Johnson County Fire Protection District No. 2 and authorized a tax not to exceed thirty cents per each hundred dollars assessed valuation. New board members voted in were; Paul Bohannon, Steve Briscoe and Arthur Barnett. In the years of 1982 through 1998, the tax levy remained between 21 cents and 22 cents per each one hundred dollars of assessed valuation. In November 1998, the voters elected to increase the tax levy by 15 cents per each one hundred dollars of assessed valuation and has remained the same for the past 25+ years.
Today, the Johnson County Fire Protection District #2 serves approximately 265 square miles in the western portion of Johnson County Missouri. In 2022 the district responded to 420 incident calls and 400 incident calls as of December 31, 2023. The District is a tax supported fire district and is governed by a board of directors that consists of 3 elected members.