PORT ANGELES — Cooperation with neighboring emergency agencies is key for the Port Angeles Fire Department to cover its area well, Fire Chief Dan McKeen told a business group Tuesday.
Because of this area’s isolation and a spread-out population, it becomes more difficult to dispatch firefighters and medics to an emergency than in Seattle or another densely populated area, McKeen said.
“In Seattle, within minutes you can have a large group of firefighters at the scene of a fire at night,” he said.
“Here, we rely heavily on volunteers, and sometimes we would have to wake people up and get them there — and that just takes a little time,” he told the Port Angeles Business Association breakfast meeting at Joshua’s Restaurant.
For efficiency, the Port Angeles Fire Department and Clallam County Fire District No. 2 — which covers the unincorporated area outside the city limit — have a close relationship.
“We try to erase those geopolitical boundaries and just do what makes the most sense,” McKeen said.
Automatic defibrillators
Likewise, the Fire Department — which also looks after the emergency medical services in the city — has been working with the Port Angeles Police Department to see that police officers have access to automated external defibrillators, he said.
Eventually, officials hope to equip all police cars with defibrillators, he said.
The machines, which are used to give a measured shock to a person entering cardiac arrest, cost about $1,500 each. Service clubs throughout the area are donating to the cause, McKeen said.
“The thing about this is when we have multiple calls, which sometimes happens, the police might have a car much closer and would be able to give that life-saving shock,” McKeen said.
“This is all about looking beyond our traditional roles.”
For each minute sooner that a shock is given to a person in cardiac arrest, the person’s chance of survival increases by 10 percent, he said.
McKeen outlined for the business group several agreements with Clallam County Fire District No. 2, including:
• A 2000 automatic response agreement, in which both departments are dispatched to areas where they can be mutually beneficial, especially in areas where there are no fire hydrants because city trucks are not equipped to carry water like the District 2 trucks are.
• A 2005 agreement to combine training for emergency medical service personnel and the fire academy.
• A 2006 agreement to combine volunteer training.
• A 2007 agreement to share equipment and a building.
“One of my favorite words is synergy, because it is a situation in which one plus one equals three — when we are in cooperation, we have more than the sum of the parts,” he said.
McKeen said a committee of fire service officials is still contemplating whether or not to recommend that the two agencies should merge.
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
