Submitted by Lacey Fire District 3 Chief Steve Brooks
Lacey Fire District 3 will celebrate the re-staffing of its Northeast Station # 35 located at 3701Willamette Drive NE with an Open House this Saturday, June 29th, from 1 to 4 pm. The community is encouraged to come out and meet the Fire Commissioners and staff along with several other local and state representatives.
The Willamette Drive Station has been without regular staffing since April, 2012 when budget constraints forced the District to move personnel to busier station areas in order to adequately cover the growing number of incident responses. The change meant that responses to the Northeast area of the Fire District were primarily covered by crews from the Steilacoom Rd. Station just over four miles away. Immediately after making the staffing reductions and adjustments, Fire District staff and the Board of five Fire Commissioners began working with the concerned residents of the community to identify strategies for restoring staffing at the Willamette Station.
In early January of this year, the District was notified of its success in obtaining federal funding under the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant program. The grant provides two years of funding for the salary and benefits needed to hire 12 Firefighters who are also trained as Emergency Medical Technicians and can respond to the District’s growing demand for emergency medical incidents. The additional firefighters will allow a three-person engine crew to staff the Willamette station around the clock and provide the necessary capacity to maintain the excellent fire protection insurance rating for residents.
The SAFER Grant funding runs through March, 2015 and the District is already working with the community to develop strategies for sustaining the improved staffing levels once the grant ends.
