About Fire District 8

DISTRICT SUMMARY:

Pend Oreille County Fire District #8 was formed in 1992 as a result of "Fire Storm" to provide fire protection to the residents of the "Spring Valley" community. The Fire District encompasses the southeast corner of Pend Oreille County and extends from the Idaho/Washington State line west approximately seven miles and from the Spokane County line north approximately seven miles, with a diagonal line running northeast to southwest along a ridge line. Within these borders, Fire District #8 encompasses approximately 30 square miles. The population of the district is approximately 700 permanent residents. The major employers in the district are self-employed farms however the majority of the residents work outside of the district.

In early 2005, the District started providing emergency medical service to its residents, and is a state-licensed aid-only emergency medical provider for the Spring Valley area of Pend Oreille County. While the District is a junior taxing agency, this emergency medical service operates free-of-charge under the budget of the Fire District.

Fire District # 8 staffing consists of one Chief, one Assistant Chief, 15 Firefighters, one Medical Officer and two Firefighter/EMTs. All personnel are volunteers, and all are firefighter-qualified; the EMTs are utilized in the firefighter rehabilitation area when not called upon to assist in fighting fires.

Fire District #8 facilities consist of: One unmanned, District-owned fire station housing two engines, a water tender and an attack (wild land engine), centrally located in the district at the southeast corner of Spring Valley and Tweedie Roads.

Fire District #8 is part of the countywide fire and countywide medical mutual aid agreements. The District assists the United States Forest Service and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources when able or called upon. The District provides structure protection as well as wild land protection to these agencies. The Fire District will provide EMS service to the USFS and DNR responsibility areas if called upon.

PRIORITY AREAS

      Residential Growth:

The majority of the residential growth is expected to continue along both sides of Spring Valley Road. This area extends the length of the District, for approximately 16 miles. Several new homes have been built along this corridor in the District, with several in the planning stage at this time. The District has seen a number of new roads established off of Spring Valley Road, with new construction and more residences in the planning stage. Pend Oreille County's building code adoption and enforcement is expected to be a major influence is creating an area of code compliant structures.

All structures in Fire District # 8 are in "wild land-urban interface" areas. Road signage is poor in some areas and visible 360 house numbering is non-existent in most areas. As the Fire District expands its volunteer EMT and Fire personnel, this is one of many major challenges. Fire District # 8 is selling code-compliant address number signs in an attempt to remedy part of the problem.

      Fire Fighting Vehicles:

Limited budget resources have resulted in the acquisition of firefighting vehicles that are showing their age. Fire District # 8 has relied on the Federal Excess Property System to obtain most of its vehicles. It also has obtained some vehicles through donations from larger districts/departments within the state.

      Water Supply:

Fire District # 8 has installed two dry hydrants in the southwest portion of the district in a small private lake and a pond. The district had no pressurized hydrants or rivers within in its boundary.

      Fire Stations:

Fire District #8 owns one dedicated fire station (Station 81) that sits on land donated to the district at the southeast corner of Spring Valley Road and Tweedie Road. It has electrical power only. No natural gas serves the area. No domestic water connection exists. The size of the land would allow for a septic system, domestic water well, and expansion of the station to include restrooms, kitchen, additional vehicle bays and a community center for our aging citizens during our frequent power outages, but the cost is prohibitive.

Our current facilities goal is:

• Station 81: Expand station to include water, restrooms, vehicle bays, kitchen, and community center.
• Station 82: Woodman/Doe Meadow Road area. Build a small station to house vehicles for this area that is time-consuming to reach due to relationship-to-Station 81 and District boundaries.

      Future Mitigation Strategies:

The three-member Board of Fire Commissioners set priorities for the 2005 budget year, with the full knowledge of our limited junior taxing districts income and expenditures.

Maintenance of our aging vehicles was and still is a priority. This is a slow and costly project that must be ongoing. The District is standardizing all vehicles so equipment can be used with multiple vehicles, both structure and wild land, thus saving the District money (i.e., all vehicles are now draft-capable, suction hosed fit structure, wild land and tenders, etc.).

Expansion of our current station: It is hoped that a grant can be found to buy materials to expand the station. The volunteers will donate the labor as they did during the building of the station. Restroom, water, septic system, and additional bays are a priority, with the hopes of a community center being added if monies are available.

We are becoming more educated in "grant" processes that are available. We intend to pursue grants as a way to finance the expansion of Station 81 and the building of Station 82. We have received DNR wild land PPE grants and dry hydrant grants, and have received Homeland Security/FEMA Grants in the past to obtain radio equipment, wild land fire shelters and PASS devices.

To address the signage and address concerns, we do currently offer code-compliant address signs, and the District is active in public education and has sponsored several "fire wise" classes within the District as well as numerous classes outside of the District, which has reduced our fire calls.

In the area of communications, both dispatch and the local phone carriers have been notified of our concerns and, until upgrades are made in both systems, we have to deal with the few dead areas. (We did upgrade our radios two years ago with a FEMA grant that helped tremendously}.

Fire vehicle replacement, maintenance, and acquisition will continue to be a challenge. We have in the past and will continue to use the Federal Excess Property Program (FEPP), Washington Department of Natural Resource, other fire agencies, donations and gifts.

      Education and Training:

A majority (60%+) of the Fire District's emergency responses are medical. All available personnel are required to respond to all calls, both medical- and fire-related, and therefore much of our time is spent working within the medical segment of the District's operations.

We participate in the fire safety education through the local schools with the EDITH house. We participate with the Conservation Districts 6th grade field trips, which provide various education opportunities to the students, and have been involved and taught "Fire Wise" classes to the adult public in conjunction with DNR and Fire Safe Spokane. Fire District #8 has been the lead district for "Give Burns the Boot" campaign within the county as well as the "Junior Fire Fighter Academy", which recruits high school students as well as adults where, over a 5-6 week period during the summer, trains these students to become firefighters in both structure and "Red Carded" wild land fire fighting.

Fire District # 8 is a charter member and the Chief is one of the board members of the countywide Pend Oreille Training Council; the Chief has been the county representative to the Region 9 Training Council, Region 9 Fire Council and the Inland Empire Fire Chiefs Association for the past six years. The Chief has written several grants to bring training to Pend Oreille County through Region 9, including a certified instructors course, safety officers course, and origin-and-cause course. The Chief, along with our medical officer, are participating members of the Pend Oreille County Origin and Cause Fire Investigation Unit, which consists of ongoing training in this field. Our District continues to have and encourages its volunteers to participate in fire training programs as well as educating to the public we serve.

      Current Resources:

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS:

Maintenance of our aging fleet is our priority.

The expansion of the station will enable us to house all of our vehicles plus enable us to open our door to the public during times of emergency.

The building of a new station will enable us to have a faster response to our citizens that are at the far reaches of our district.

Recruitment/training of volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs).

Improve our ability to provide properly trained and equipped personnel to serve the public.