Stevens County Fire Protection District No. 1 - Overview:
Stevens County Fire Protection District #1 is a combination fire department comprised of six career firefighters, one Fire Chief, two office staff and sixty active volunteer personnel. Operating from eight fire stations, the district serves an area of 378 square miles and seven separate communities in South Stevens County. Our combined district population is approximately 12,000 residents. (see map) Stevens County Fire Protection District #1 responded to approximately 1100 calls for service in 2006. Just about 75% of the calls for service are emergency medical in nature. First responder services include a combination of Intermediate and basic life support delivered by career and volunteer staff.
Stevens County Fire Protection District #1 (SCFPD#1) is the largest fire district in Stevens County. The area is largely Urban Interface with hundreds of identified at-risk homes. It also includes 50,000+ acres of private forestland for which we provide initial attack in the event of a wildland fire. The career staff works a forty hour work week, providing “on-duty” coverage with at least four personnel Monday thru Friday from 8 am to 6pm. There are no staff “on duty” on weeknights, weekends or holidays. Response to emergencies during those time periods occurs by volunteer staff being paged at home (or work), driving to their assigned fire station and responding to the scene in the appropriate fire apparatus. On a graded scale of 1-10, the fire district currently has an “8a / 10” rating from the WA Surveying and Rating Bureau. The primary deficiencies consist of inadequate fire flow (lack of fire hydrants) and lack of on duty personnel. These ratings do impact fire insurance rates for commercial and residential properties.
SCFPD#1 recently adopted its 2008 budget in the amount of $1,293,087.
75% of the fire district’s revenue comes from property taxes. Approximately 21% of the budget is funded by an “EMS” Levy. The remaining 4% in includes miscellaneous revenue including grants and fees collected by the fire district. Budget expenditures are broken down as follows: Administration and support personnel, facilities and utilities – 25%. Fire Operations (includes career personnel, benefits, volunteer reimbursement, equipment and fuel) – 60%. Capital expenditures (includes payments for new equipment and fire stations) – 15%
Due to WA State Law (Voter Initiative I-747) the fire district is limited to an increase of just 1% over the previous year’s budget. Budget growth for any increases in the cost of fuel, utilities, employee benefits, supplies and materials are restricted by this funding limitation. This drastically limits the District‘s ability to meet the impacts of growth or to implement increased staffing and programs that could better serve the community.
Stevens County Fire Protection District No.1 is committed to providing the best possible fire, rescue and emergency medical service we can with the assets we have available. The fire district is served by a dedicated staff of career and volunteer personnel that often put service to their community ahead of their personal lives. As the Fire Chief, I will continue to pursue every avenue to secure the additional resources necessary to assure a reasonable degree of fire and life safety protection is provided. |
