Pacific Northwest

[dyken]

Bellingham Fire Department

1 of 2 Identical 1996 Darley

Reserve Engine's

1750/500    

[dyken]

North Whatcom Fire Rescue

Crimson CAFS

1 of 3 Identical    

[dyken]

North Whatcom Fire Rescue

2800 Gallon H&W Tender    

[dyken]

    North Whatcom Fire Rescue

Crimson

[firetdriver_99]

[quote name='dyken' timestamp='1307565690' post='443382']

BP Cherry Point Refinery

[/quote]





Wow thats one big deck gun..lol

[Guest]

Whatcom County Fire District 7 in Washington State runs a 1998 Pierce Dash engine with a 1250 gpm pump,750 gallon water tank and 50 gallon foam tank out of it's Ferndale station.

[Guest]

Ladder- 741 in Ferndale is a 2002 Pierce Dash 100' ladder tower with a 2000 gpm pump,300 gallon water tank and 100 gallon foam tank. The foam tank is relatively large due to several refineries in it's first due coverage area.

[Guest]

Farther south in Snohomish County Fire District 11, Silver Lake used to run several Darley built rigs.E-11A was a 1981 Darley Ford C 800 with 1000/500 specs.

[Guest]

Engine 11 at Snohomish County Fire District 11 used to run this 1989 Darley Duplex with 1500 gpm pump, 500 gallon water tank and 55' Thibault aerial device. This engine was written off in a MVI some years ago.

[Guest]

Engine 12 also ran out of the Silver Lake station, and was a 1994 Darley Duplex with 1500/500 specs.

[Guest]

AR 11, another Snow County rig, was a 1994 Darley built International 4900 pumper with a 1000 gpm pump, 500 gallon water tank and 100 gallon foam tank.

[dyken]

    Whatcom County Fire District No.4

Reserve Engine

E-11

1985 Ford C-8000

Grumman 1250/750

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[dyken]

    Whatcom County FIre District No. 8

Marietta Fire Department

2005 Pierce Contender

1260/970/30 CAFS

[dyken]

Whatcom County Fire District No. 8

Marietta Fire Department

H&W Rescue

   

[Roto-Ray]

Can someone help me understand how the "Fire Districts" working in Washington? Are these taxing districts, or simply how the county is divided up into response areas?

[Bryce]

Fire districts are separate taxing districts. They have their own property tax levy and are governed by an elected board of either 3 or 5 members. The maximum property tax levy is either $.50, $1, or $1.50 per $1000 of assessed valuation, depending on whether the district is volunteer, combination, or full time. There's also something called a "benefit service charge" that some districts use. It is a complicated formula based on square footage and fire protection systems. When voters approve the FBC, the district's property tax levy is reduced, but they generally get more $ overall.



Generally fire districts cover unincorporated areas outside of cities. Historically there were many more districts, but as cities are incorporated or annex unincorporated areas, they tend to go away. There have also been a slew of mergers in the last 30 years. Cities can and do contract with fire districts. Many ciites have also annexed into fire districts, which means the fire district continues to operate as though the area is unincorporated. And in the last few years, Regional Fire Authorities have been created, which are a whole different lengthy post...



Hope this helps!

[Roto-Ray]

Bryce, thanks for the explanation.



Based on what you said, I gather that (for example), none of the taxes that King County collects are applied to fire protection, rather, the King County Fire District 4 would directly tax the citizens that they're responsible for protecting?

[Bryce]

Right. Most people have no idea how the system works, so you have cranks that get all pissed off at fire districts for asking for more $. People think because a fire district has the county's name in it, it is part of county government. They're completely separate entities. This causes all sorts of problems when enterprising anti-tax types try to restrict property taxes. Fire districts usually get hammered worse than any other entity, even though everybody says that "waste" is what should be cut, since their sole source of funding is property taxes. Fire districts get no $ from counties, except in counties that have a countywide EMS levy.



I guess that's the other thing to mention. Fire districts can run a separate EMS levy of up to $.50 per $1000 assessed valuation. This can cause a patchwork quilt of EMS service levels. Some counties, like King County (where Seattle is), have opted to do a countywide EMS levy. The logic there is that it's better to have a uniform tax rate and common standards countywide for EMS. Given the results and reputation of King County's (fire based) EMS system, I think that's true. The last King County EMS levy passed a few years back with something like 85% of the vote.



Hope this isn't all too boring.

[dyken]

Bellingham Fire Department

1998 Spartan/LTI

100' Aerial