Feb. 20--Last year was a tough year for families who lost homes to fires, with $1.5 million in estimated fire losses calculated by the Lewiston Fire Department.
But Fire Chief Travis Myklebust said that loss is far less than years prior, reflecting good luck paired with quicker response times by firefighters. Myklebust said just a few years ago estimated fire losses were as high as $4 million or $5 million.
"Fire loss continues to be down. I need to find some wood to knock on," Myklebust said. "I see that as a benchmark report saying, here's where we want to be. We want to keep fire losses low."
The fire department's annual report, compiled and released last month, marked a downward trend in fire loss, a neutral level in revenues and about a 3.2 percent rise in call volume from 2016.
The report shows revenue, largely from emergency medical services billing, topped out at $2.7 million last year. EMS billing made up $1.8 million of the revenue, with EMS contracts, grants, fire protection contracts and wildland fire deployments rounding out the rest. That is in addition to the $7.7 million the department was budgeted from the city of Lewiston.
Myklebust said he anticipates revenues remaining about the same as call volumes continue steady growth into 2018. About two years ago, total fire and EMS calls rose to 7,813, far surpassing any of the previous 10 years. Firefighters and paramedics were stretched thin and often responding to nonemergency calls. So Myklebust offered training to the community, highlighting when and why to call 911. He credits the training with total calls dipping to 7,450 last year.
Each of the department's four fire stations were dispatched to more than 1,000 incidents last year, except Station No. 4 at 424 Burrell Ave., which responded to 594 calls. Myklebust said the drastic difference in call volume is because of Station No. 4's inability to house a medic team. That station is slated to be shut down and a new fire station built, hopefully by 2020, Myklebust said.
New in 2017, he said an automatic aid agreement with Clarkston fire, Asotin County fire and Wheatland fire to send an engine from the closest city once a structure fire is dispatched also helped prevent fire loss damages. Myklebust said there have been few problems with the auto aid agreement, and it has been a boon to each department.
"That has worked even better than what we anticipated; we are putting firefighters quickly on the ground," he said. "It's one of best things we've done as valley chiefs in the last 10 to 15 years."
He said there are no plans to expand the range of the agreement to add more agencies, as stretching resources further could become problematic.
The department had 10 retirements and resignations, far fewer than years prior when the average service time was close to 20 years and a wave of retirements followed. Myklebust said he was worried a few years ago as a number of employees reached retirement time and there was a dearth of applicants for firefighting. The wave shifted, and this year Myklebust said an academy of six cadets will begin training to become firefighters. The current average years of service is at a more manageable 10 years with the department.
"We just got through it the last two years with eight or nine retirements each year. We weathered that storm," Myklebust said. "I was nervous for two years, but we've got a good personnel list and promoted some great firefighters."
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