More Calls a Tall Order For Short-Staffed Yakima Fire Department

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Story Published: Nov 12, 2009 at 5:23 PM PST

By Peter Bukowski

YAKIMA -- If you see an ambulance fly by, there's a good chance a firetruck isn't far behind. That's because fire engines don't just go to fire calls.

"It seems like there are quite a few of them to where they'll call us in order to get to the hospital. That does take away from us responding to a subsequent fire at the same time and or somebody who really needs our help," says Don Dexter, who has been with Yakima Fire for almost 25 years.

The fire stations respond because ambulance services don't have the manpower to deal with the volume of calls. Plus firefighters can often get there much faster. But Yakima Fire is short staffed, and that can cut deep into response times even if you live just around the corner.

"A lot of people believe that I've got a fire station right up the street I'm in good shape. Well you know, a lot of times we're out of the station," says Deputy Fire Marshall Ron Melcher.

It would be easier to get to all of these different kinds of calls if they had enough people. But according to national averages, Yakima Fire is woefully understaffed.

"We're well below national average. We're a mile below. They recommend one and a half firefighters per 1,000 and we're at less than one. So we're quite a ways away," Melcher explains.

And that can have huge repercussions for the safety of folks in Yakima if an understaffed fire crew has to deal with every little problem on top of medical emergencies and fires.

Don Dexter says,"Every minute you lose, fire's gonna grow. It's going to double itself every minute so we don't have the resources here obviously if we're out on first aid calls which is the majority of our calls right now."

And with an economy that has fewer people seeing doctors and more calling 9-1-1 for every issue, a small fire staff could mean a fire threat that growing by the minute.

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