PHOTO BY RILEY GRATZER

Fire Chief Ed Goodlet (right) congratulates three new firefighters at a fire commissioner meeting July 15. Dave Lindenmuth, Jacob Poisson and Jim Thor (left to right) will begin work as official staff fire fighters in early August, putting Edgewood’s department into compliance for staffing.

Fire department gets SAFER with grant

By Clare Jensen

Edgewood Fire Department will be getting a little safer this August with the help of a national grant.

Last year, Edgewood’s Fire District 8 applied for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant (SAFER), which they received in February.

The department applied for the same grant in 2006, but did not receive it.

This year the department, which has been historically understaffed, was able to add three new firefighter positions, putting them into compliance with four firefighters on each of the three shifts.

Out of the applicants nationwide, 73 departments in Washington alone applied for the grant.

Edgewood was the first of the 18 departments selected in the state to receive the grant.

Three firefighters, who had served as volunteers for the Edgewood and Milton communities over the past several years, were hired to join the firefighting staff in Edgewood.

Starting in May, Dave Lindenmuth, Jim Thor and Jacob Poisson received 10 weeks of training at the fire training academy in North Bend, one of the most intense training academies in the state and in the nation.

Poisson said the academy allowed the trainees to get the maximum exposure to live fires, both in hours logged as well as size and scope of the fires they fought.

“You learn it a lot more – it’s good to learn on the extremes,” he said.

Assistant Fire Chief Chuck King noted the exceptional training the three probationary firefighters received at a fire commissioners meeting July 15, where the new staff received their badges.

“The results coming out of this type of school are second to none,” he said. “They have all the tools they need to be effective firefighters.”

The SAFER grant will match about $316,000 over the next four years to fund the new staff and the top-of-the-line training.

“We’ve never done this in the department’s history – (adding) three outstanding probationary firefighters at the same time…it would have taken several years for us to increase to that level of staff,” said Fire Chief Ed Goodlet.

Goodlet said bringing in three firefighters at once, rather than staggered over several years, is advantageous to the department. It keeps the staffing on each shift balanced and equal, and creates an equal starting off point for forming strong relationships.

Hiring the new staff members is also a factor that plays into the Milton and Edgewood fire departments’ comprehensive service plan.

“Our plan all along was to hire three more people. This falls in line with the first part of the [two fire department’s plan] – hopefully we will be able to move on with the second part and hire paramedics,” Goodlet said.

The new firefighters started officially last week and will be conducting administrative work throughout July. Following a competency test, they will begin as shift firefighters in August, and the department will be officially fully staffed.

“This is a huge advantage to our size of a department,” Goodlet said.

In the past, a minimum staffing of only two firefighters at times provided some tough situations for the firefighters, and the community they served.

“Having two more firefighters on a truck – we’re going to be able to provide better, safer and faster service.”

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