I’ve been fire chief at Clark County District 6 for seven years, and both an assistant chief and deputy chief for nearly five years before that. Our service area includes the communities of Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek, Felida, Mount Vista, Lakeshore, and the Fairgrounds. This is a professional, compassionate organization that does everything it can to save lives and property – but we’re starting to have problems.
Some of our equipment and apparatus is outdated and breaking down more frequently. One of our stations is no longer suitable for modern-sized emergency response apparatus and the building is past its usable life. We also need to improve our training programs for our firefighters and community.
These issues have contributed to the fire district being downgraded by the Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau (WSRB) earlier this year, which could impact area home or business insurance rates. When this happened, my administrative team and our Board of Fire Commissioners decided to alert the community before things got worse.
The way we see it, there’s no fire yet, but we definitely smell smoke.