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Battalion 27 is not going to be used anymore. Battalion 27 used to be Command 200 and was shared by personnel from Burien King #2 and Des Moines King #26. But Des Moines King County Fire District #26 and the Federal Way Fire Department are merging to create South King County Fire and Rescue. This merger is going to be effective January 1st 2006. Burien and North Highline are now jointly staffing Battalion 18.


Federal Way will keep the same numbers 61,62,63,64,65,66,68 and the Des Moines station will keep the number 26 to allow for more stations(25,27 etc.)

According to the merger website this will be the staffing levels for the newly merged department.

Station 61:
Engine 61 with a staffing level of 3
Station 62:
Engine 62 with a staffing level of 3
Ladder 62/Aid 62 jointly staffed with a level of 2
Battalion 61
Station 63:
Engine 63 with a staffing level of 3
Station 64:
Engine 64 with a staffing level of 3
Aid 64 with a staffing level of 2
Medic 8
Station 65:
Engine 65 with a staffing level of 3
Station 66:
Engine 66 with a staffing level of 3
Station 68:
Training and Maintenance Facility
Station 26:
Engine 26 with a staffing level of 3
Aid 26/Marine 26 jointly staffed with a level of 2

Has anyone heard that King County Medic One will be stationing a medic unit at Federal Way station 66 to cover Des Moines, North end of Federal Way and the west hill of Kent when the merger occurrs?

The only medic unit stationed at a Federal Way station full time will be Medic 8 out of station 64. Medic 13 is only staffed when staffing is very heavy, poor weather (Snow) and during large events in the south end that might require extra medic units. So you will hear of medic 13 at times. They do station it out of Station 66.

Hope this helps

Nick

It would make sense to station a South King County Medic unit either at station 26 or station 66.
Currently we have Medic 7 at station 76 in Kent, Medic 8 at station 64 in Federal Way and Medic 4 at station 47.
This is a run for all 3 to come to Des Moines or even the Woodmont area on a good day.
I have also heard medic 15 on the air in the Burien area.So is this unit just like medic 13, a floater unit?

The next medic unit will go to station 26. I believe it will start after January 1st. It will be a part time unit until full funding is avalible. For some time there has been talk about moving Medic 8 to station 62, it's possible that topic might come up again. I know that Federal Way is currently looking at rig placments and might actualy move rigs around next year to help get speciality rigs to Des Moines easier. No decisions have been made yet.

Just heard that when the medic unit goes in place at Station 26, it will either be designated as Medic 13 or 15.
The talk about moving Medic 8 to station 62 is indeed true as it would move it to a more centralized location of the city.

All of you are correct regarding the proposed medic unit placements. ALS resources are placed stategically (SP?) throughout the county based on factors such as population density, call volumes for the fire departments, the number of ALS responses amongst those call volumes, access to major roads, etc.

Medic 13, when in service, was indeed quartered at FWFD Station 66. Some might recall that Medic 8 used to be there, prior to Medic 7 going in to service--which was around 1996. The on-duty Medical Services Supervisor aka MSO-1 is also quartered at Station 66.

As projected in the King County EMS stategic plan, a 12-hour ALS resource will go into service in 2006--which is most likely going to be Medic-13. Or they might designate it something else. And of course it will be quartered at Station 26 in Des Moines.

This part time ALS resource will also be the second-due ALS unit for Burien, North Highline and parts of Seatac. It will take loading off of Medic 4, 5 and 7.

In regards to the B27 deal, that will indeed fall to the wayside. With the likley merger between Federal Way and Des Moines, there will be no need for this off-duty command officer--which was a rotation of chiefs from bothe Fire District 2 and 26. As stated, Fire District 2 and the North Highline Fire Department share the B18 operational batallion chief position with two chiefs coming from North Highlilne and one coming from District 2. These two departments have been in merger discussions for awhile now and likely will merge at some point. Both departments are closely monitoring annexation issues with the City of Burien and the City of Seattle. The city of Burien is looking at potentially annexing the entire unincorporated North Highline area--or a large portion of it. The city of Seattle has also expressed interest. But really it is Mayor Nickels that wants to expand his empire. The city council does not want to annex the area in the near future, but potential annexation areas are in the cities comprehensive plan. The city of Burien is the most likey entity to annex the area.

If this happens prior to a merger between the North Highline Fire Department and Fire District 2, then Fire Disrtict 2 will take over the North Highline Fire Department. This is because the fire districts boudaries move whereever the cities move. The north Highline employees simply become Fire District 2 employees and essentially making a merger unneeded.

This make a lot of sense and helps out the citizens of each city.With the merger of Des Moines Fire to Federal Way Fire and the proposed merger of Burien Fire (King District 2) with North Highline, that kind of leaves the City of Sea Tac Fire out in the cold to merge with someone.
I know sometime ago, there was talk to merge all west side King County fire departments together to form a South King County Fire Dept but that fell through because of certain chiefs with ego issues.
If the Port of Seattle was not a municipality of its own, than the City of Sea Tac could merge with them since the airport is right in the middle of the city.
If the Mayor got his way, how far south would the city take over and would they take over North Highline station 18 and 19 and make it a city stations?

The thing you have to think about is that this is just the first round of mergers. Saltwater Ridge as it was called would have merged all of the west side departments. You’re correct that chiefs along with many others were concerned about what their role would be. All of the departments in the area are starting to deal with having large numbers of FF's retiring in the next 5 years. It's much easier to merge two or three departments instead of 5 or 6. We haven't even talked about Auburn and how they have talked with many departments about merging. Right now it's much easier to fund a county department over a city department, and with all of the departments looking at heavy retirements soon you just might see an LA County type department develop.

The idea of merging all of the southwest King County deparmtnets has been discussed since I started in the fire service awhile ago. I was around for the "Saltwater Ridge" talks and that attempt was destined for failure from the get go. Many of the commissioners and chiefs were not willing to give up their "kindoms". Not willing to think about the citizens first--only thinking about what they would get out of the deal or what they might stand to lose.

The Saltwater Ridge attempt really went south when the chiefs of Des Moines and Fire District 2 pulled out and said they were going to merge by themselves. Well, that attempt failed also. For alot of the same reasons. Selfish chiefs and commissioners not willing to look at the big picture.

About two years ago, the chiefs of Fire Districts 2, 11, 26 and 39 took another look at the concept and proceeded to study the idea of merging four departments. This go around did not include the City of Seatac.

So what happened to the four department concept? Well, there was some concern wheter or not your could merge that many departments all at once. There was some disagreement if you could or could not do this. Burien and North Highline decided to hold off on the larger merger concept. Because of the legal concerns and also the dynamic and uncertain future of the potential annexation area, they elected to look at a two department merger. However, all the departments still maintain that their final goal is to merge all the departments. It just may take two smaller mergers before attempting a larger one.

There is currently legislation is place that allows many departments to create a fire authority. But I think the legislation only allows for consolidation of departments, not a complete merger. There is talk of creating additional legislation that makes it easier to merge departments, thus realizing the goal of larger regional services.

The previous poster is correct that fire districts are doing somewhat better that municipalities.

One last point is that if more departments begin to merge in South King County, you may finally see the South King County Medics merge into the larger entity--as apposed to the county continuing to administer the program. A study was jointly completed by King County, the Federal Way Fire Department and the Kent Fire Department to see about incorporating the medics into one or both of the above departments. Right from the get go, it appeared that the fire departments wanted to split the medics into two groups with a portion going to either departments. The medics union immediately apposed this idea, citing very real concerns. Such as the fact the doing this goes against the idea of regionalization and the reduction of duplicity. In the end the study recommended keeping things as is for now. But look for this topic to come up again if more departments merge.

I don't see why three or four fire departments could not merge together.

Parkland/Midland(fire district 6), Spanaway/Elk Plain(fire district 7) and Summit/ South Hill(fire district 9) merged to create Central Pierce Fire and Rescue(Pierce County Fire District 6)

Lake Tapps(fire district 22), Bonney Lake Fire Department and Pierce County Fire District 24 merged to create East Pierce Fire and Rescue(Pierce County Fire District 22)

East Pierce Fire and Rescue(fire district 22), fire district 12, and South Prairie(fire district 20) have consolidated services and I assume will most likely fully merge in the future.

East Pierce also provides command services for Sumner(fire district 1)


I sometimes wonder that if fire departments in South King County were to run paramedic units, wouldn't there be more medic units available than what there is with King County Medic One. Just a thought.

Nick

There are a lot more of an ego issues with certain chiefs in some of the departments in South King County and the cost of changing everything over needs to be voted on by the citizens of the county and we know how that goes, King County residents are paying way too much on certain propositions now.

As for the medic units being run by the departments, The South King County paramedics are just that, they are not the combination Firefighter/Paramedic as they are in Pirece County, Shoreline, Seattle and other locations in the area.

I've had friends of mine transfer from South King County Medic units to a department that has the combination because they wanted too do more than being a paramedic, they wanted to fight fires too and it was getting boring in King County just going on aid calls.

When you look at what medic units are available for all of South King County.
Medic 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 makes a total of 7 available for ALS response.

Then look at just Central Pierce Fire and Rescue Medic Units.
Medic 610, 611, 613, 614, 615, 616, 618 and they have a total of 7 but they only cover three cities/areas.

Nick

They do have more medic units for the area. But I believe those are Paramedic/EMT units and not double Paramedic units like South County. As much as many of us believe that they should come over to the fire service, I don't think many want to change the double medic design. King County runs ALS different than Pierce County. You hear much debate about which is better, but I believe that the departments in South King don't want to change the system. Comparing medic units under two different designs really doesn't work. Not to mention, we haven't even talked about how many medic units South County could have if they charged for transporting.

Two good reasons why a single lone King County Fire Dept does not exist: egos and JOBS. Someday it will happen. Just look at the last posts -- in regards to Medic Units. A hell of a lot of units in just ONE of 39 counties. What was the Fire Service like -- say back in 1960 ??? EMS didn't exist. The local ambulance service was OWNED by the local funneral home -- to get business. Going slowly isn't going to hurt the public --- except in the pocket book. And that MUST be added to the bottom line and is a reason to merge all districts into ONE Countywide Fire and EMS District. It doesn't even have to include all of the incorporated cities and towns. Burien and White Center have been working togather a long time. They work well togather. Give Federal way time to work out all of the minor stuff -- and then bring in the Highline Area. Thank God for Gordon Vickery and his idea of a Medic One. Can you picture that old motor home responding today ??? Give them time. They will get it togather. I have 2 dollars on it. MTM