The Mukilteo Fire Department has joined an interjurisdictional wildfire team.
Mukilteo firefighters are now members of the Snohomish County Fire Chief’s Fire Coordinating Group.
The Mukilteo City Council on July 5 authorized Mayor Jennifer Gregerson to sign the city’s fire department onto the wildfire team.
The group coordinates training and response to wildfires in the county. The goal is to extinguish the fires quicker through group response and common tactics across jurisdictions.
Although the fire department is already a member of the association, it hadn’t joined the Fire Coordinating Group because it didn’t have the resources to fight wildfires. That changed recently.
The Mukilteo and Lynnwood fire departments and Snohomish County Fire District 1 have been awarded a regional grant to go toward wildfire training and equipment. Mukilteo’s share is about $50,000.
Now that Mukilteo’s firefighters are members, they will be “trained to the same standards as the rest of the county, and operate with the same tactics as county mutual departments during a wildland fire,” said Fire Chief Chris Alexander.