The Pasco Fire Department and its counterparts across the Columbia River are bolstering their ability to work together across jurisdictional lines.
An "automatic aid" agreement the Pasco City Council approved Monday will let dispatchers call the city's fire personnel and trucks into neighboring jurisdictions and vice versa.
Pasco has had a mutual aid agreement with the neighboring jurisdictions for more than 20 years, but the agreement required the fire department asking for aid to put in a request and for the shift commander of the responding department to approve its resources being sent to help.
"The intent is to get it going faster under most circumstances, and not build in a delay of contacting people," said Pasco Fire Chief Bob Gear.
Asking for aid can add two to five minutes to the time it takes to get mutual aid, and in one case this year, it took as long as 11 minutes, Gear wrote in a memo to Pasco City Manager Gary Crutchfield.
A fire department tends to get help from neighboring departments when its resources are divided among multiple calls.
A national standard is for a fire department to send 15 people to a house fire and 20 people to a commercial fire. Pasco's minimum standard is to send 12, but on half of the house fires in which property was lost in 2008, the department sent less than that because it was responding to several calls at once, Gear reported.
Only Kennewick Fire Department has the personnel to meet the national standard, and that's when it's not handling multiple calls, Gear said.
The Kennewick and Richland fire departments and Benton Fire Districts 1, 2 and 4 have had automatic aid agreements with one another since 2007.
It will benefit Pasco as well as those departments to extend the agreement to Pasco Fire Department, said Kennewick Fire Chief Neil Hines.
The blazes the districts have battled in the past week or two during the Fourth of July holiday and the start of fire season show the need for interlocal aid, Hines said.
"There isn't one of these big fires that all of those agencies haven't been on the scene," Hines said. "And really we're only one fire away from having a disaster because we're all tied up."
The automatic aid agreement with Pasco will go before the Richland City Council for approval today and the Kennewick City Council in a workshop meeting next week. Commissions for Benton Fire Districts 1, 2 and 4 also will consider the agreement.
Crutchfield cautioned the Pasco City Council that the fire department's overtime costs could increase from the agreement and that the staff would monitor the expense.
Gear said the agreement will allow the departments to decline offering aid if their personnel already are involved with other calls.
-- Joe Chapman: 582-1512; jchapman@tricityherald.com
Similar stories:
Pasco to urge local cities to merge dispatch centers
Pasco to urge local cities to merge dispatch centers
Pasco officers may be communicating using a new radio system by next year.
The Pasco City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to urge Kennewick, Richland, Benton County and Franklin County to join the city in forming a regional emergency communications system during 2012.
Pasco intends to have police officers switch to the 800 megahertz radio system Kennewick and Richland police use by the end of the year. Pasco fire would continue to use the very high frequency, or VHF, system.
Pasco great-grandmother's home goes up in flames
Pasco great-grandmother's home goes up in flames
PASCO -- A Pasco family lost everything in a fire that left their mobile home a scorched shell.
Herlinda Guerrero was in the kitchen of her home at 127 Diamond Drive when she noticed a fire on the floor near a couch Sunday night.
She wasn't able to put it out, so she got her three great-grandchildren, Derick Jackson, 5, Devonte Jackson, 4, and Maliah Jackson, 2; and her grandson Brandon Treadaway, 13, out of the mobile home, said Christian Valdivia of Kennewick, Guerrero's grandson.
Franklin Co. could decide on 'doughnut hole' today
Franklin Co. could decide on 'doughnut hole' today
Franklin County could decide tonight whether to allow Pasco to continue efforts to annex a so-called county "doughnut hole" using a new process.
Franklin County commissioners plan a 7:30 p.m. public hearing at the Franklin County Courthouse to decide if they want to enter talks with Pasco and Franklin Fire District 3.
Without the county's approval, the process created by the state Legislature to use an interlocal agreement for annexation can't happen.
'Doughnut hole' residents say they don't want to be part of city
'Doughnut hole' residents say they don't want to be part of city
Some county residents wanted to make sure Pasco City Council members know what they think about annexation of their property into the city before discussions begin.
About 13 "doughnut hole" residents told city council members Monday that they didn't want to be part of the city, accompanied by the applause of most of the 40 people present.
Pasco, Franklin County and Franklin Fire District 3 are beginning talks about a planned annexation of about two miles of county land surrounded by city property using a new process that allows an interlocal agreement between all three to set up a schedule and conditions for annexation.
Pasco OKs subdivision, but fee will be required
Pasco OKs subdivision, but fee will be required
The developer of a proposed 50-duplex subdivision in Pasco will need to pay a fee to accommodate the new students the homes are expected to bring into the Pasco School District.
The Pasco City Council approved a preliminary plat for Columbia Villas in a 6-1 vote Tuesday that included a condition for the developer to negotiate a mitigation fee with the Pasco School District.
This is the first time Pasco has required this type of special fee during the preliminary plat process.
Print
Email Story
