After a notable two-and-a-half-year tenure, Vashon Fire Chief Matt Vinci is stepping down from his job.

In an email last week to staff and board members of Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR), and in a subsequent interview, Vinci said he has accepted an offer to become the fire chief of Spokane County Fire District #9.

His departure from the district will take place no later than Feb. 1, and he is currently developing a transition plan to hand over his responsibilities in late January, he said.

According to VIFR board chair Brigitte Schran Brown, a board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday Dec. 3 to formally accept his resignation and discuss plans for the transition.

“Matt has left us in a good position, so we will not rush into anything — we will go through our next steps methodically and thoughtfully,” she said. “Matt will be working with us to ensure a smooth transition and that current projects will be completed exactly as planned.”

Schran Brown praised Vinci, saying his vision, insight, and energy had transformed the district from a struggling, demoralized and understaffed agency to one that is now operating on the highest level.

“He came in and hit the ground running and didn’t blink,” Schran Brown said. “In my 45 years as an EMT, I’ve worked with several chiefs and he is the finest. My gratitude to him knows no bounds.”

Vinci, in turn, credited his staff and first responders, saying his role had been to support them as they carried out their life-saving work on Vashon.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve done together to build out our model and support our community, and I’m proud of the leadership I’ve been able to bring to the district,” he said. “I wouldn’t change anything.”

Ben Davidson, a 16-year VIFR veteran firefighter and captain who was tapped by Vinci to serve as the district’s Division Chief of Training and Support Services — and who was recently promoted to the role of deputy chief — said he was willing and prepared to assist in the transition in any way necessary, including leading the district in a interim or permanent capacity.

“In working with the chief and being close to his side, I understand how things operate and I’m comfortable with the lay of the land,” Davidson said. “I just want to be there as needed.”

The district has made enormous strides under Vinci’s leadership, he said.

At the time of Vinci’s hire, “there was a lot that needed to be done to professionalize our district and improve our safety as well as our ability to take care of the community,” Davidson said.

As fire chief, Vinci had fully understood the urgency of VIFR’s needs and had set out to remove any roadblocks in the way of progress, Davidson said. His decisive actions to do so, in turn, had inspired his staff to hold themselves to the highest levels of professionalism, he added.

“He’s extremely hardworking, dedicated, and driven, and we all leaned in with his leadership,” Davidson said.

Vinci was hired as the district’s assistant chief in June of 2022. About six weeks later, the board voted to terminate the contract of former Fire Chief Charles Krimmert, following an unreleased investigation of his conduct by the district’s attorney. The board first named Vinci as interim chief, and then, a week later, voted to make his position permanent.

It was Vinci’s first job as a fire chief, after a career in fire service that spanned two decades in operations, including serving as a captain/EMT with the city of South Burlington, Vermont. Immediately previous to his hire on Vashon, he had served in leadership roles with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., as both the chief of staff and the director of education, training and human relations.

Heading east

Last week, Vinci called his new job a great fit — both professionally and personally — for himself and his family.

At Spokane County Fire District #9, he’ll lead a department of close to 80 uniformed and civilian staff members, augmented by a volunteer force, that serves nine fire stations covering 125 miles in northern Spokane County. In 2023, the district responded to almost 8,000 calls for emergency medical care, fire and non-medical emergencies.

Vinci said that he looked forward to helping District #9 build out a robust strategic plan, as he had done for VIFR with a plan that was adopted in the spring of 2023.

“I look forward to finding additional revenues there, as we did on Vashon,” he said.

Progress at VIFR

Vinci has now accomplished many of the goals set for in VIFR’s strategic plan, including expanding the district’s staff of career firefighters to employ six firefighters in four revolving shifts.

The district’s two most recent hires, in October — bringing the number of career firefighters in the district to 24 — were made possible by a recent $850,000 federal grant to cover those wages and benefits for the next three years.

At the time of Vinci’s hire as fire chief, in July of 2022, the district’s career staff had shrunk to only nine firefighters, due to retirements, resignations and moves to jobs in other districts by local first responders.

The lack of staffing, Vinci said at the time, caused steep costs for overtime, staff exhaustion, and a high number of dangerous “Zone 1 callbacks” — fire district parlance for times when the station was emptied of responders during simultaneous 911 calls and/or transports to mainland hospitals.

The strategic plan spearheaded by Vinci also mandated modernizing Vashon’s aging fleet. Within the past year, that, too, has been accomplished, with the purchase of a new fire engine and two new ambulances, as well as the replacement of several staff vehicles.

Another goal was met in the fall of 2023, with the reopening of Burton Fire Station 56, leading to significantly improved response times to Vashon’s south end and on Maury Island.

VIFR’s Deputy Chief Davidson called Vinci’s vision to re-open Station 56 a “game-changer,” and perhaps his greatest achievement as fire chief.

“I think that’s one of the coolest things about the chief,” Davidson said. “He’s so determined, if he sees something that needs to happen he just goes after it unbridled, and he’ll keep after it and make it happen even when many people don’t think it is possible.”

The reopening of Station 56 was a key promise in a campaign for a six-year levy “lid lift” for the district, which passed by approximately 62% in an August 2023 election. The measure authorized VIFR to increase its levy rate from about $1.13 per $1,000 of assessed value to $1.50 — the maximum allowed by state law — in 2024.

The lid lift continues through 2030, meaning the district can increase its property tax collections by another 6 percent, not to exceed $1.50 per $1,000 for each of those years — an action taken by VIFR’s board of commissioners just weeks ago as part of the 2025 budget process.

Other substantial funding — totaling approximately $2.3 million in 2023 and 2024 — has flowed into the district’s coffers from the federal government’s Ground Emergency Medical Transportation (GEMT) program, which provides supplemental payments to close the gap between the district’s actual costs and amounts received from transporting Medicaid patients.

Before 2023, the district had not participated in the program, despite its eligibility to do so.

The district’s 2025 budget, passed by the board in November, conservatively projects another $760,000 in revenue from that program.

Mobile Integrated Health

During his tenure, Vinci also championed a King County program, Mobile Integrated Health, adding it to VIFR’s suite of services. The program, launched in February, provides home care for islanders, by appointment, with a wide variety of needs, including follow-up visits after surgery, wound care, fall prevention assessments, care for chronic conditions, and nutrition and wellness checks.

MIH is completely funded by local property tax revenue and an already-existing King County levy, with no additional cost to those who use the service.

Currently operating two days a week, the program will soon expand to three days a week, staffed by one firefighter/EMT, two part-time registered nurses, and one per-diem nurse. In 2025, the program will also hire a part-time licensed independent clinical social worker as well as a physician’s assistant (PA), who will work under the supervision of the program’s medical director, Cameron Buck.

The PA, said Vinci, will also be able to diagnose and treat islanders seeking urgent walk-in care in a new state-of-the-art examination room at Station 55 — part of the station’s major renovation currently underway.

VIFR was impacted this year when Vashon Health Care District voted to sign a $1.5 million two-year contract with healthcare provider, DispatchHealth, to provide urgent care on Vashon. Vinci had vocally opposed the plan, saying he believed the addition of the for-profit mobile healthcare provider could disrupt MIH as well as emergency care on Vashon. An expansion of MIH, he said, would be a much more cost-effective and well-integrated urgent care fit for the island.

After being invited by VHCD to develop a plan for such an expansion, Vinci and his staff received approval from VIFR’s board to do so. Vinci then presented the plan at the same August meeting during which the VHCH board later voted to ink its contract with DispatchHealth.

Most of VHCD’s commissioners — who voted 4-1 to approve the DispatchHealth plan — praised MIH and generally supported the idea of its expansion, but said they believed DispatchHealth could start up faster and provide immediate urgent care to an island that desperately needed it, and that doing so would not step on the toes of the MIH program.

Shortly after the meeting, Vinci, Schran Brown and Lilie Caroon, VIFR’s MIH administrator, said they believed VHCD had never seriously considered VIFR’s proposal, and Vinci additionally said he would keep a close eye on the operations of DispatchHealth.

“As the person responsible for oversight of our district, I need to ensure that [DispatchHealth] is not impacting services the taxpayers are already paying for — that they are not doing MIH services, that they are not getting involved in Basic Life Support services,” he said.

At that time, Vinci launched a still-ongoing educational campaign to remind islanders to “Don’t Wait, Call 911” if they experience serious symptoms of cardiac, stroke, head injuries, shortness of breath, broken bones, or other serious conditions.

Last week, Vinci said that in his remaining time on Vashon, he and others will continue to bring their concerns about DispatchHealth’s operations to the public and VHCD.

“We are going to continue to evaluate it and raise awareness of issues,” he said.

Renovation

Vinci’s departure will leave one significant project unfinished: a major renovation of the district’s main station 55, on Bank Road, which has been now been underway for the past five months.

The renovation — with a price tag that rose from $3.2 million to approximately $4 million after significant water, mold and structural decay was found in the building, and additional costs were required to meet requirements for disability access and compliance — is now estimated for completion next June.

The project will add 950 square feet of space to the residential area of the station, an exam room to better serve those who drive or walk into the station to receive aid, and a decontamination room to clean firefighting gear of carcinogens.

Work on the project, by the project team of staff, architects and consultants, will continue apace after his departure, Vinci said.

“Our two years of project planning will ensure that there will be no delays or issues with finishing these much-needed improvements,” Vinci said.

Clarification: This article has been clarified to better state that VIFR’s “levy lid” lift cannot exceed $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed home value for the next six years.

Elizabeth Shepherd Photo Fire Chief Matt Vinci (left) and Division Chief Ben Davidson were all smiles outside Vashon’s new fire truck at Inspiration Point, minutes after it had arrived on Vashon on October 5.