No siren wailed in the distance as Kellan Harrison doused a fire with a garden hose last month in Cannon Ball.

When fireworks sparked a blaze there June 25, Harrison knew not to wait for the fire department. On the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, there is no fire department. Not for private structures, anyway.

"Young men with garden hoses - that's how we have to fight our fires down here," tribal council member Archie Fool Bear said Friday.

The reservation actually has two groups of firefighters - one that handles blazes on grasslands and another that takes care of Bureau of Indian Affairs property.

But until Friday, there wasn't a crew authorized to fight fires on private property.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the BIAchanged its position on Friday and will allow their firefighters to put out fires in private structures.

In response to a demand from Dorgan, the Department of Interior's Deputy Secretary, Jim Cason, will issue a directive that allows emergency personnel to fight fires on private structures from the outside " but they are still not allowed to enter the buildings.

"This is a step forward, but it's still unbelievable that the BIA would prevent their firefighters from doing whatever is needed to protect lives that may be at risk in private buildings on Indian reservations," Dorgan said.

Dorgan said the new policy doesn't go far enough and that he will force the BIA to take whatever steps necessary to fight fires.

"The BIA has a trust responsibility to fight fires on reservation land, and that just smacks of bureaucratic incompetence," Dorgan said. "I plan to ask Congress to light a fire under these bureaucrats, and that's one fire I'm sure they'll put out."

Dorgan is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that funds the Interior Department.

Two residences on the reservation have burned to the ground this summer.

Before Friday's decision, members of the fire-suppression crews on Standing Rock said they were told they weren't authorized to respond to fires at private structures. In a Tribune story on June 24, a Bureau of Indian Affairs official said Congress has mandated that BIA crews not involve themselves with "private" fires. Bill Benjamin, director of the Great Plains regional office of the BIA - located in Aberdeen, S.D. - said fires on private property remain a large concern at the agency.

He said the BIAwould work with the tribe to create a volunteer fire department.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also was outraged about the lack of fire protection from the BIA.

"We are taking this very seriously," Conrad said. "It sounds almost unbelievable that BIA firefighters won't protect private homes on the reservation - it defies common sense. I'm taking this up with my colleagues on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and I'm asking the Interior Department for an explanation. In the meantime, we're pursuing other measures to help Standing Rock."

Those measures include possible grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to Conrad spokesman Chris Thorne.

The blaze put out by Harrison started a day after the story ran, and a day after tribal vice chairwoman Avis Little Eagle spoke out about the need for a volunteer department there.

Fool Bear said little progress has been made in organizing volunteers, largely because the reservation has no fire-suppression equipment.

Additionally, a pump is still out at the water-treatment plant, which has cut capacity in half. Reservation residents have been asked to conserve water until Monday, when the pump can be replaced.

"That adds another threat," Fool Bear said. "If a fire happens, you can put 50 fire hydrants out there and it won't do any good because there's no pressure. We have a very, very sensitive fire situation right now."

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com. Tom Rafferty contributed to this report.)