AH officials receive fire briefing

During the Airway Heights City Council Sept. 22 study session, representatives from Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI) presented their findings and recommendations from their evaluation of the Airway Heights Fire Department.

Airway Heights entered into a joint agreement with the Medical Lake Fire Department and Spokane County Fire District 10 to bring in ESCI. According to Fire Chief Mitch Metzger, the goal was to have the consultants perform an evaluation of the three individual departments and provide recommendations on how the departments can improve their cooperation between each other. The idea to hire consultants came from all three departments.

“Whenever it seemed like recommendations were made, more questions would be popping up,” Medical Lake Fire Chief Jason Mayfield said. “The departments decided to bring in an outside source that would have a non-biased professional opinion of how the departments are currently operating.”

The consultants will give a presentation of their findings for the Medical Lake Fire Department at the Oct. 7 City Council meeting.

Metzger said all three departments sent records and history to ESCI. The consultants also came out and met with all three departments, as well as citizens and city officials back in February.

ESCI senior associate Lane Wintermute gave a side-by-side comparison of all three departments, specifically looking at assets, training programs, administration, fire prevention and life safety programs.

“There’s already a great deal of collaboration between these departments,” Wintemute said. “That’s commendable. You don’t see that in a lot of places. Most fire stations don’t want to work together.”

ESCI associate Don Bivins presented recommendations for further consolidation between the three departments, which included Fire District 10 annexing the Airway Heights Fire Department and contracting to provide fire services to Medical Lake. Bivins explained that Airway Heights could not annex Fire District 10 because the latter provides services to areas beyond the city limits.

Another suggestion was for the two departments to merge and create a regional fire authority (RFA). Bivins explained that Medical Lake could not participate in the RFA because of a lack of a continuous boundary.

“You can also do the status quo, where you don’t do anything different,” Bivins said.

Under a RFA, Bivins explained that Airway Heights would share governance with Spokane Fire District 10.

Another recommendation from Bivins and Wintermute is to have the departments engage in discussions with Spokane County Fire District 3 to consolidate services.

“It’s beyond the scope of this study, but it warrants further consideration down the road,” Bivins said.

Airway Heights Mayor Patrick Rushing expressed concerns about the city’s fire department merging with Fire District 10.

“There’s a deep identity of the city’s fire department,” Rushing said. “If we say ‘we are going to contract with Spokane County,’ residents are going to have a fit.”

Rushing suggested having a town hall meeting.

Metzger said Airway Heights’ residents should have some say. He added that a consolidation of services would be good for the residents if it provides a higher quality of service.

“For citizens in this community, it’s important,” Metzger said.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].