Small Town News

Medical Lake Fire Department is reordered and ready-just in case

---

New chief announces promotions, looks for new recruits to handle ever-increasing number of calls

Under the direction of new Fire Chief Jeff Estes, a reorganized Medical Lake volunteer Fire Department now has a core group of officers with more than 65 years of experience between them.

At last week's regular City Council meeting Estes presented his selections, including assistant chief and training officer Jason Mayfield, captain and safety officer Corey Stevens and lieutenant John Merrick, who will be heading the department's EMS division and a quality assurance program.

The 18 men and women who make up the city's volunteer force all have full time jobs but still give a substantial amount of time to the department, said Estes. "We ask a lot of them; they have to be available to immediately respond," he said. "A guy can't have a beer during his barbeque, they have to take a separate car to go have dinner with family, they can't leave the area to shop. It puts restrictions on family and free time."

Estes, who also works with the Spokane Fire Department, said in recent weeks he's personally clocked nearly 100 hours a week between the two jobs, but he tries to emphasize the importance of prioritizing. "Family first, livelihood second, if we're lucky the department finishes third, but it's a balancing act."

Estes has been working toward this symmetry since he fell into firefighting more than 20 years ago in Yakima. While on track toward a radiology career, his college counselor suggested a gig as an EMT in order to see if he'd be able to handle tense situations with injured people. At age 18 he trained with the local volunteer force and "got hooked," eventually moving up to Spokane and then Medical Lake with his wife.

Assistant chief Mayfield, who started firefighting in Medical Lake in the mid-90s, said he too became instantly hooked. He had a three-year stint in Texas and Alaska as an Army firefighter before coming back to Medical Lake when his wife became pregnant with their second child.

Mayfield said his role as the station's training officer allows him to see that same spark ignited in new recruits. "I love seeing the new guys and gals the first time you take them into a fire," he said. "You see this light go off and it's like, 'Yeah, this is why I'm here.'"

But finding and keeping those recruits is a "never-ending process," Estes said. This isn't only the case here, where there's a high rate of military redeployment, but all over the country he said. "It's a risky job and it's just as dangerous to fight a fire or be exposed to infectious diseases on EMS calls in a small town like Medical Lake as it is in LA. or New York City."

Recruitment is especially important when emergency call volume is rising every year. May-field said the department fielded a record 594 calls last year and that number will likely be higher by this year's end.

About 85 percent of those calls are for medical services, and Estes said he expects this to rise along with national trends. "To some people we're the first line of basic health care providers," he said. "As sad as it is, we're sometimes seeing these folks for things they should probably be seeing their doctor for but they have no access to health care, for whatever reason."

Estes said he'd like to see a funding bump to hire full-time fire personnel so that the department can more effectively deal with increasing call numbers, but he doesn't see that happening without a major shift in public opinion. "We don't have a big business district, which is where you typically get revenue, so it's up to the citizens." he said, adding that if residents want a higher level of service they would need to accept a higher level of taxes.

For the time being, Estes said he's proud to work with his solid group of dedicated volunteers. "They're protecting their own down here, it's their own community," he said. "I do the same thing when I'm here. My family is right down the street and I'm protecting them too, just like I am my neighbors."

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at ryan@cheneyfreepress.com.



Copyright 2009 Cheney Free Press, Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2010 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from Cheney Free Press