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SHFAD Purchases House, Still Looking for New Ambulances

Fire Chief Nick Tyler informed the Sweet Home Fire & Ambulance District board during its Nov. 19 meeting that they have successfully purchased property in Cascadia to be used for housing of its part-time program staff.

Chief Tyler told The New Era that property located east-adjacent of the Cascadia Station was offered for sale to the SHFAD for $300,000, to which the board agreed.

The three-bedroom, two-bath house will be remodeled for use as living quarters for those in the part-time EMT program. Some in the program, Chief Tyler explained, live outside Sweet Home, so having housing closer to town is a benefit for both them as well as the fire district.

Currently, some of the part-time staff live in Albany and Brownsville, so it’s better to have them living in Cascadia – should they choose to do so – because off-duty staff are sometimes asked to help in an emergency situation.

“Currently there’s one volunteer firefighter at Cascadia, so what it does is it puts our part-timers, who are EMT Basics, and our wildland folks, who can do some type of firefighting, it puts a response core in Cascadia that we haven’t had before,” Chief Tyler said. “It provides fire and protection and EMS to Cascadia.”

In phase one, SHFAD crews will remodel the house for its intended purposes. Using bunkbeds, the house could potentially sleep up to 12 people. In phase two, Chief Tyler would like to expand the house with more bedrooms with the idea of turning the Cascadia Station into a “wildland station.” As the wildland crew – a.k.a. “Crew 21” – works on Forest Service property, seasonal workers will join them, which creates that need for more housing.

Chief Tyler also reported to the board that Wildland Fire Division Program Manager Christian Whitfield has received four F-350s for the handcrew. As snow began to cover the mountains recently, the handcrew was given work to begin removing drywall, cabinets and debris from the newly purchased house.

New Ambulance Update

Battalion Chief Randy Whitfield updated the board regarding the plan to purchase new ambulances from a recent voter-approved bond. Whitfield said he’s being careful about costs as he researches purchase options.

“I haven’t gotten in a real big hurry because life is changing in the EMS and fire world,” he said. “If you’re not careful, you can spend an inordinate amount of money on things, and everybody’s starting to change how they’re doing things a little bit. I just decided that my parameters were gonna be a little bit more thrift-conscious than fancy-custom.”

For the most part, the Type III vehicles will still have the functional parts, but wouldn’t include highly-priced custom features. In fact, Whitfield noted, the custom builders are starting to return to “cookie cutter” styles because the costs for custom work are becoming more than fire departments are willing to pay. Examples might include having a small drawer in a particular spot, or having a pass-through window from the back to the front instead of a small hole (for communication).

He’s looking at four different companies to buy from, including Horton – which offers $340,000 vehicles that were used for demonstration, and Medix – which are $40-60,000 cheaper because they don’t include all the digital options.

Pre-COVID, when costs were much cheaper, the SHFAD had purchased Horton ambulances for $185,000 and $193,000. Chief Tyler added that, pre-COVID, the digital, touch screen options were nice, but now the touch screens become damaged by all the cleaning chemicals they now have to use. As such, going back to analog is starting to make more sense.

Chief Tyler emphasized that it may feel like it’s taking a bit long to buy the new ambulances, but they want to make sure all involved parties (i.e., EMTs) have a chance to perhaps weigh-in and understand that a feature they’re used to may not be available on the new ambulances.

They’re also in the process of selecting command-style Type 6 brush rigs, also to be purchased from the bond.

In other business:

  • The board approved a resolution authorizing the adoption of a Health Reimbursement Arrangement plan with Gallagher Benefit Services LLC;
  • Chief Tyler informed the board they conducted a recent Battalion Chief testing, and SHFAD received five applicants.
  • Chief Tyler reported the seismic retrograde project at Crawfordsville Station is progressing forward.
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