Vashon Island Fire District’s Station 56, located in Burton, went live on Oct. 23, a week ahead of its anticipated official opening on Nov. 1.
A rotating shift of two career firefighters is now in place around the clock, residing in a new modular housing unit that is just steps away from the station’s fire apparatus bay. Tucked inside the bay are an aid car, a fire engine, and a water tender.
Purchased from Wolf Industries, the housing cost the district $146,350, a price inclusive of the structure itself, all its furnishings, and its installation.
Inside, the 615 square foot unit contains two small but comfortable bedrooms, a modern kitchen and living area, and a spacious full bathroom. A stacked washer/dryer unit is also part of the furnishings.
The house, despite its compact layout, is filled with light and has tall ceilings.
It’s the first time in the island’s history that the Burton Fire Station, built in 1965, has included living quarters for career firefighter/EMTs.
For decades, the station was staffed by local volunteers who drove to the station to access the apparatus housed there. In 2010, it became staffed by other volunteers who were part of a residency program at that time, and more recently, starting in 2017, it was staffed by part-time paid firefighters.
Those groups of first responders were housed in a nearby private residence, owned by the district, named the Bennedsen House in honor of Lt. Robert Bennedsen, a volunteer firefighter who was killed in Afghanistan in July 2010.
But as these programs floundered, with part-time paid staff leaving the island to seek full-time employment elsewhere, the district sold the Bennedsen House in 2021.
For Matt Vinci, named Vashon’s fire chief in 2022, reopening the station and staffing it with on-site, full-time career firefighters/EMTs has been a high-priority goal — one also reflected in the district’s 2023 strategic plan, developed by a national consultancy over the course of several months, with community input.
Supporters of a ballot measure for a levy “lid lift,” approved by island voters in August, cited the urgent need to re-open the station to improve response times to Vashon’s far southern end and parts of Maury Island.
Staffing the station was also necessary, they said, to prevent steep rises in insurance costs for many local homeowners in those areas.
These price hikes would result, they said, from possible downgrades in fire ratings determined by the Washington Surveying and Ratings Bureau (WSRB).
WSRB last surveyed Vashon in 2017, when Burton was staffed by volunteers.
But new maps, prepared by the ratings board this year, showed that hundreds of island properties that were not within a 5 to 7-mile radius of a fully-staffed station could be downgraded to much more unfavorable ratings if Burton was to remain unstaffed.
Those homes will now either retain their current ratings, Vinci said on Friday, or see their WSRB ratings actually improve.
The rating board conducted its evaluation of Vashon in late August and will fully announce its decisions at the end of the month, he said.
In the meantime, he said, the district’s response times to the south end of Vashon — another key goal in the strategic plan — have already improved.
“We anticipate that the response times will be cut in half, and we’re looking forward to evaluating that data,” Vinci said.
Fleet upgrades
Last Friday afternoon, firefighter/EMTs Fale Waggen and Yolanda Dowell filled in at Station 56 as the two first responders on duty that day transported a patient to Tacoma General Hospital.
The pair joined Vinci in providing a tour of the newly reopened station, showing off the freshly scrubbed bays. Atop the station, a newly painted sign proclaimed the station to be “King Co. Fire Dist. No. 13 – Station 56.”
The sign, Vinci said, had been repurposed from the district’s Fire Station 59, a non-functional and out-of-service station on the Vashon’s north end.
In September, the district sold that station for $340,000 but kept its sign. This month, it was refurbished and painted by Dowell — in her first-ever sign-painting effort — to hang at Station 56.
Within minutes of Dowell and Waggen stepping inside the station’s modular housing, their radios sounded a call, and they quickly left to answer another call for aid, coming from Wax Orchard Road.
Vinci, left at the station to show a reporter around, described the opening of the station as a major win for islanders.
But he also described more work ahead for the district.
The fire engine now housed in the station, he said, was one of two 23-year-old district engines that failed their annual pump tests in late September. After its repair, it had been designated to be housed at the Burton Station.
Costs of repairing the other engine were too high to be considered, given its advanced age, Vinci said.
“We’ve been using parts from it to keep the engine in Burton in service,” he said.
During his tenure, Vinci has repeatedly pointed out that VIFR has the oldest apparatus fleet in King County, with an average age of 19.5 years. But in recent months, VIFR’s board of commissioners has begun to take action to change that.
At a special meeting early in October, commissioners voted unanimously to approve the purchase of a new fire engine to replace the decommissioned one, at a total cost of $886,000, including sales tax.
The new engine, a stock Pierce Enforcer Pumper truck purchased from Hughes Fire Equipment in Tacoma, is currently slated to be delivered in the spring.
The engine was purchased with funds taken from VIFR’s fleet reserve fund, resulting in a pre-payment discount of approximately $25,000.
This purchase closely followed another major fleet improvement — in August, commissioners voted to buy two new ambulances for the district. The ambulances, to be custom-built by Horton Emergency Vehicles and delivered to Vashon next January, will replace two VIFR ambulances that are now 11 and 14 years old.
The total price tag for the ambulances was $826,000 which included approximately $18,000 in discounts for pre-payment and the purchase of multiple units.
For that major expense, VIFR tapped federal funds of $748,843, received from the Ground Emergency Medical Transport Program (GEMT), which provides supplemental payments to close the gap between the district’s actual costs and amounts received from transporting Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) patients.
Previous to Vinci’s tenure as fire chief, VIFR had not participated in the program, despite its eligibility to do so.
Staffing
VIFR’s paid staffing currently stands at five firefighters/EMTs per day, with shifts of three firefighters at Station 55 and two at the Burton station. These crews are augmented, at times, by volunteer firefighters or EMTs.
But more help will soon arrive when the two most recent hires by VIFR graduate from the fire academy in January.
At that time, VIFR will be able to maintain four regular shifts of five firefighters, reducing some of the overtime hours that are now being accrued to achieve the staffing configuration.
This week, VIFR also announced promotions for three career firefighters, Brian Skobel, Ben Steele and Brad John, who will now serve as lieutenants overseeing operations at Station 56.
2024 Budget
The district is now in the process of developing its 2024 budget and will hold a public hearing to discuss it at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15.
The board plans another discussion and vote for the budget at a special board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27. Both meetings will be held at VIFR’s Training Center, at 10019 SW Bank Rd, or via Zoom.
At the Oct. 25 commissioners’ meeting, Vinci detailed some highlights and priorities of the new budget.
These included hires of two new firefighter/EMTs, with two more positions proposed to be funded by a SAFER grant application. A new program manager position will support the district’s Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) and Community Risk Reduction (CRR) programs, as well as other administrative projects.
The budget will also include funds to replace a maintenance vehicle and add to fleet reserves for the eventual purchase of an engine, rescue truck, and brush truck.
Other priorities include program funding for MIH and CRR, as well as for enhanced training opportunities and health and wellness programs for firefighters.
Addendum to article: This online article adds information not contained in the Nov. 2 print edition, reporting the promotions of three VIFR career firefighters, Brian Skobel, Ben Steel and Brad John, to serve as lieutenants overseeing operations at Station 56.
