La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

The COVID-19 pandemic has everyone’s immediate attention.

Fire District 13 Commissioners and personnel, who have been on the front lines of the ongoing virus crisis, are looking to the future as well.

Commission chair Larry Kibbee and panel members Bruce Shellhamer and J.J. Wilbur approved the proposed outline of a new five-year plan for fire district operations as part of a briskly paced 45-minute video-conferenced meeting last Thursday.

“This is the first stage,” Fire District Capt. Ted Taylor said of the outline. “Nothing is cast in concrete, but it’s a snapshot of what we do and what we have.”

The outline, addressing various fire district strategic planning topics, is viewed as a flexible document.

“As we go forward,” Taylor predicted, “we’ll have to adapt it as needs arise.”

“It’s a map on how to get from here to there,” Shellhamer added. “We’ve put out a skeleton and now we’re putting some flesh on it.”

For the present, COVID-19 and the district’s 2021 budget are at the forefront.

As an example, Fire Chief Wood Weiss shared with commissioners the effectiveness of a “fogger” disinfectant device that District 13 crews use to spray down emergency gear, equipment and vehicles after each service call.

“It kills COVID in about two minutes,” said Weiss, “and isn’t harmful to the lungs or skin.”

The “fogger” is an example of COVID-related gear whose costs are covered primarily by grant funding.

Weiss reported the district’s number of monthly calls and transports have remained below average during the pandemic. The district realized 37 fewer incident calls and a reduction by two in transports between August 2019 and August 2020, Weiss said.

However, the fire district has seen an increase in requests for advanced life support services.

“I believe people are not calling for as much stuff as they used to,” Weiss said. “But our ALS calls are up.”

As for the budget, Kibbee said Commissioners would review it in October prior to formal approval in November.

The fire district budget process aligns with a planned build-out of the stationhouse on Snee-Oosh Road. Weiss said he had met with Mount Vernon architect Peter Carletti and had contacted Swinomish Tribal Community officials on jurisdictional matters related to the project.

“Hopefully,” Weiss said, “we’ll have some direction by next meeting on what we’ll do and not do.”

In related developments:

• Weiss said Fire District 13 and La Conner Hook & Ladder recently held joint training exercises. They will team up again tonight (Wednesday) for a life-flight training session at John K. Bob Ball Park. “It’s the first time in many years that we’ve trained with La Conner,” said Weiss. “Everybody is excited about continuing that process.”

• The district will develop a flier informing students of its training for prospective firefighters. “These students are going to go out and become career firefighters,” Weiss said, “so we need to keep bringing in new blood.”

• Turner said wildland fire protection and developing safe and effective evacuation plans continue to be priorities. “Shelter Bay and Swinomish Village are at risk from wildfire situations,” he said. “We’ve been lucky so far.” Turner alluded to horrific western wildfires that have beset California, Oregon Washington, and British Columbia the past few summers. “The recent fires have indicated that we can’t just hope it won’t happen. Hopefully, the (fire) season is now somewhat diminished.”

• The Fire District has evaluated the capacity of Shelter Bay’s hydrants for continuous fire flow. “Shelter Bay projections for fire flow have improved,” Kibbee said. “They’re better than originally thought and that’s good news in our capability to protect Shelter Bay.