Local fire district leaders recently agreed that collaboration between agencies is key.

Port Angeles and Sequim area fire districts met on June 22 for a joint meeting in the Vern Burton Community Center in what may have been the first formal meeting of its kind between the agencies.

Fire District 2 and District 3 commissioners, along with leaders with the Port Angeles Fire District/City of Port Angeles and various staffers, spoke about potential cooperation and partnerships with some topics including joint, bulk equipment and apparatus purchasing to shared incident response to potential shared job positions.

District 2 Chief Jake Patterson said there have been informal discussions about sharing some positions — i.e. mechanics and volunteer coordinators — but no formal action taken.

“We’ve made inroads on some (ideas),” Patterson said.

After a 90-minute meeting, commissioners agreed to meet again in the next quarter, and for fire chiefs to first work on easily obtainable partnerships, such as with PenCom (Clallam County’s 9-1-1 center) to better collaborate fire/EMS response depending on location.

Patterson said they’ll have some clearer plans in the coming month.

District 3 interim fire chief Dan Orr said there’s “quite the list” of partnership opportunities, including a possible community medic program and bulk buying.

“It’s really fun to get the chiefs together because every time we do it, more ideas come up,” Orr said.

“It’s a chance to improve service and increase efficiencies.”

Purchase power

Commissioner Keith Cortner with Fire District 2 asked if the districts/departments can buy in bulk together.

Port Angeles city manager Nathan West said the future necessitates they all work together due to rising costs.

“When it comes to purchasing, I don’t think everything is off the table,” he said. “Whether it’s how we go about training or purchasing a new fire truck. It’s also important to think about facilities.”

Fire District 3 commissioner Mike Mingee said “it was about time we have this meeting,” adding, “We’re unable to do it all by ourselves … and I guarantee you will find efficiency when you work together.”

Fire District 2 commissioner Steve Hopf said some fire departments in King County have worked together as a consortium to optimize purchasing while still maintaining independent operations, and that it’s been working well.

There are no insurmountable issues by partnering, West said, and that the process involving the City of Port Angeles would be fairly simple through inter-local agreements, if approved by the city council.

Derrell Sharp, Fire Chief for the Port Angeles Fire Department, said it’s likely they all use the same vendor(s) so collaboration is possible.

With Olympic Ambulance coming under new ownership with a larger fleet, Orr said there’s a lot of things we could do differently “that could truly make it better.”

Said Orr, “We truly see them as partners.”

Fire district/department leaders agreed to invite PenCom, Olympic Ambulance, Port Angeles city councilors and other stakeholders to future meetings.

Shared response

Opening boundaries for who responds to what incident depending on location and availability is an easy change, fire district leaders said, with the caveat that the various fire agencies, PenCom dispatchers and other stakeholders corroborate first before any action is taken.

“We want to make sure our folks are on the same page,” Orr said.

“It sounds easy to do that but there’s a lot of little pieces.”

Cortner said he’d like to ensure PenCom is looped in and that they should be able to evaluate the closest unit for each incident.

“From an economy perspective, it’d be a wise move,” Orr said of sharing a response area.

“We are very fortunate to have an incredible group of individuals who can do some amazing things (such as planning for optimal locations for fire stations) … The talent we have internally is phenomenal. We just have to figure out how to tap it as a group.”

Whether someone is responding from the Dry Creek area or Diamond Point, Hopf said he hopes there’s enough “subject matter experts” that anyone can respond.

“It’s something we can aspire to,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what firefighter we’re gonna put in the engine.”

Commissioner Dan Huff, Fire District 2’s retired assistant chief, said when on mutual aid calls, he’s never heard complaints from neighboring agencies that also respond to an incident.

“Having that backup is important,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where it comes from.”

Mingee said “anywhere you can find efficiencies I’m in favor of,” and encouraged baby steps and for chiefs to get buy-in from staff and stakeholders first.

Hopf shared a similar sentiment that the agencies are “starting to crawl” with these partnerships, and that PenCom should be able to express its issues and vice versa.

“It’s certainly a marathon, not a sprint,” Orr said about potential partnerships.

“Some things we can do operationally that will make a difference. We’re looking for easy, single base hits as a start.”

Overall, Huff said he was “pleased to see where we’re at (with collaboration)” as the agencies didn’t talk much when he was coming up the ranks.