East County Fire & Rescue

East County Fire & Rescue (ECFR) is an emergency services provider located in Clark County, in the State of Washington, United States.

General Information

East County Fire & Rescue provides fire suppression and emergency medical services (EMS) as well as first response for all hazards in ECFR's fire district. ECFR is one of eleven fire protection districts in Clark County, and is an ACTIVE participant in regional mutual aid agreements with all other agencies in Clark County, and also with neighboring agencies in adjacent Skamania County and across the greater southwestern Washington and Northwestern Oregon region.

Origin

East County Fire & Rescue was formed by the consolidation of Clark County Fire District #1 (CCFD1) into Clark County Fire District #9 (CCFD9) on May 16, 2006. The consolidation was prompted by the decaying modern trends in volunteerism which resulted in reduced numbers of trained firefighters reliably available at all times of the day, and also by the desire of both fire districts to reduce costs by sharing resources and eliminating duplicative expenses.

The consolidation also provided the newly-formed ECFR with a stronger voice in local fire protection issues than either District #1 or District #9 formerly possessed individually, an important issue to the old districts in the face of their shrinking service territories resulting from the expansions of the nearby cities of Vancouver, Camas and Washougal.

Following the consolidation, the former CCFD1 and CCFD9 commissioners also merged their leadership structure over the new agency and formed a new five-member board of commissioners. ECFR initially retained CCFD1's numeric district identifier of "1" for apparatus and station identification, but was forced to revert back to using call signs based on "9" when countywide fire agency re-numbering took place June 16, 2009.

Service Territory

The East County Fire & Rescue service territory is located in the southeast corner of Clark County, bordered on the east by the county line with Skamania County, on the south by the Columbia River as well as the Cities of Washougal and Camas, on the west by the Cities of Camas and Vancouver, and on the North by Camp Bonneville (a former military training area), Clark County Fire District #3 (serving the greater Hockinson area), and the Yacolt Burn State Forest. The district is roughly bisected into east and west battalions by the Washougal River, and includes 3.5 miles of Washington State Route 14, 7.8 miles of the former Washington State Route 140, and 4.6 miles of Washington State Route 500.

Services

In addition to essential structural and wildland fire suppression and emergency medical services, as well as vehicle extrication and hazardous materials emergency response, ECFR also provides emergency rope rescue, limited water rescue, general search and rescue, and fire safety/fire prevention education.

ECFR provides a rope rescue unit, an air unit utilized for refilling SCBA bottles during fires and other emergencies, and a rehabilition unit to the region's emergency services agencies, while neighboring agencies also provide other various specialty resources that are made available to ECFR. In addition, ECFR maintains a Planning/Finance Operations Command trailer for regional use during major incidents.

Paramedic ambulance transport for the ECFR service area is primarily provided by the Camas Fire Department. Secondary coverage is provided by Clark County EMS District #2, which subcontracts American Medical Response (AMR).

Facilities

East County Fire & Rescue currently serves from six fire stations.

Facility

Apparatus

Coordinates

Station 91
600 NE 267th Ave

Engine 91
Engine 97
Squad 91
Tender 91

Station 92
4909 NE 292nd Ave

Squad 92
Tender 92

Station 93
121 NE 312th Ave

Engine 93
Squad 93
Tender 93
Air 93
Rescue 93
Rehab 93

Station 94
1808 SE 352 Ave

Engine 94
Squad 94
Tender 94

Station 95 †
211 39th St

Engine 95
Engine 43
Medic 43

Station 96
39806 NE 24th Cir

Squad 96

† Engine 43 and Medic 43 are operated by the Camas Fire Department, and only available from 7AM-7PM. 24-hour availability of these units is planned to begin sometime in July 2009.

Personnel

East County Fire & Rescue is a combination fire department served by both career and volunteer members. ECFR employs four full-time career fire officers; the Chief of Department, an Assistant Chief, and two Captains, as well as some volunteer members who work for ECFR full-time as daytime administrative staff support. ECFR also employs several part-time paid firefighters who supplement staffing during daytime hours when volunteers are largely unavailable. While the career members are critical to the operation of the fire district, ECFR is primarily a volunteer agency.

Volunteers serve ECFR in a variety of roles:

  • Respond-From-Home (RFH) Volunteers - these members who live or work in or near the district, who respond to emergencies as they occur depending upon their availability.
    • RFH Firefighter - traditional firefighters, also required to maintain at least a minimum of medical first responder certification with the State of Washington.
    • RFH EMSO - EMS Only members are volunteers who serve by responding to medical emergencies, but who are not firefighters.
  • Sleepers - these members draw from the ranks of the RFH Volunteers, but also contain members who live too far from the district to be viable RFH members. Often, these are career-minded volunteers who seek experience as they prepare for a full time firefighting career with ECFR or elsewhere. They serve by staffing stations during evening hours. Sleepers typically serve at least four shifts per month.
  • Residents - ECFR is currently capable of accommodating up to nine resident volunteers, who are provided living quarters in a fire station. Residents have a higher level of required participation than other volunteers, but still are able to work and/or go to school full time while fulfilling these obligations.
  • Cadets - Junior and Senior High School students are offered early exposure to a career in the fire service through the Cadet program. While cadets do not provide significant support during emergency events, they do provide a valuable contribution to ECFR in the course of their training programs. The ECFR Cadet program is operated as a joint venture with Clark County Fire Districts #3 & #6, Clark County Fire and Rescue (formerly Clark County Fire Districts #11 and #12), the City of Vancouver Fire Department, the Battle Ground School District and the Clark County Vocational Skills Center.
  • Emergency Response Team (ERT) Volunteers - ERT members are typically concerned citizens who wish to volunteer their time and energy to the community, but are unable or unwilling to go to the extreme of becoming a front-line response firefighter. ERT members nonetheless provide an extremely valuable service to ECFR and other agencies in the region by responding as support personnel to larger incidents, and by responding with and staffing the ECFR's rehabilitation unit (Rehab 93).

Proposed Fire Authority

As of late 2008, ECFR is in discussions with the City of Camas to consolidate ECFR with the City of Camas Fire Department. This plan is partially in line with the original scope of ECFR, which was initially planned to include CCFD1, CCFD9, and the Fire Departments of the Cities of Camas and Washougal. The ongoing process currently intends to combine ECFR and CFD, and potentially other nearby agencies in the future, into a new legal entity, an as-yet unnamed Fire Authority.

The proposed Fire Authority, in its initial format of combining just ECFR and CFD, may employ approximately forty full-time personnel and forty volunteers, operating out of eight fire stations, covering a area, and would be managed by a board of elected representatives.