Fire district officials recently announced two changes that may affect some islanders financially.
Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) has discontinued its membership program, Your Call, created to offset islanders’ costs of ambulance transport to area hospitals. Additionally, the Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau recently downgraded the fire protection rating for islanders at the far north and south ends of Vashon and the southern half and eastern edge of Maury Island. This change could mean an increase in those islanders’ homeowners’ insurance premiums.
To help offset patient costs when they began charging for ambulance transports last year, VIFR officials created Your Call, patterned after Airlift Northwests’ AirCare program.