Long post… City council wants to make budget cuts to the fire department. We want to share some information to show the repercussions if these decisions are made.
City council wants to eliminate 12 positions which will result in the ELIMINATION of Station 92 (7707 Tieton Drive). Station 92 has the largest response area at Yakima Fire; between 56th and 96th avenue. Anyone who lives in the Scenic Drive area, Apple Tree Golf course area, and if you live near Rosauers market, you will be impacted.
This will result in longer response times. If you are in the northern part of 92’s area, it will take Engine 93 around 12 minutes to respond to your location. If you live on the southern end, it will take Engine 94, 10 minutes to reach Apple Tree Golf Course. That’s if these busy engines aren’t ALREADY on a call.
If you are having a heart attack, every minute counts… for every minute without CPR, it reduces survivability by 7-10% PER MINUTE.
City council also suggested lowering staffing on the fire engines from 3 firefighters to 2. If you are in your house and it’s on fire… we can’t go inside to get you, BY STATE LAW, unless we have 3 personnel.
Our Chief told council that Yakima Fire is actually due for ANOTHER fire station versus eliminating one to meet demands of the city!
For those who don’t know, YFD has responded to more fires than MOST departments in the WHOLE STATE. Eliminating crews and stations ultimately hurts YOU, the citizen. If you disagree with their decision, please reach out to council! #iaff469
We apologize for the map colors, inside the dotted line is the response area for YFD. Each color is the general area of the responding area for each fire station.
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A city that does not properly fund public safety is a failed City. Yakima's been in a state of failure for decades. Current leadership hasn't done anything to address the issue, only exasperate it. Some complain about the salaries for firefighters, suggesting they get paid less or go to volunteers. You can pay them here or they will go somewhere else. It's that simple. A city with 100,000 people running off of a volunteer system? Good luck with that. The financial hole didn't start yesterday, this has been a known problem for a long time and the people in positions to do something about it, didn't.
Does it make sense that the budget for fire is larger than the budget for police? Much of this budget problem has been caused by previous city managers giving too much away to the fire union. Look at the salaries of our firefighters and you will see the issue. They are bankrupting our city. We should have volunteers like most other fire departments do. It’s an anomaly that we don’t and the excuses are extremely weak.
Damn, it's like deja vu all over again! FYI: I'm a retired YFD firefighter/EMT. Years of service, 1977-2002. When I started on the job YFD had 5 Stations. 2 crews at Station #1 (#91), an engine company and a truck company. The Battalion Chief had a driver, which meant an extra firefighter at every fire call. A 3 FF engine company is an absolute bare minimum. The NFPA standard is a 4 FF engine company.
Everyone!!! If you don’t have dinner plans, please show up and support the Cour D’alene Fire Department at Texas Roadhouse who tragically lost firefighters to a shooting. #iaff469
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Texas Roadhouse when is our date?
Currently, YFD is fighting 2 separate brush fires. Fire crews also responded to a structure fire early this morning around 4 am. #iaff469
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Thank you
you all need to quit
Thank you, @el_porton_yakima for giving us food after our long fire! #iaff469
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Wonderful to see great support from the community!
Awesome❣️❣️❣️
Brush fire was called-in around 2:15 pm today. A quick response from our on-duty crews and help from our surrounding neighbors made a stop and limited its spread. #iaff469
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Be safe!
Looks like it’s going to be a busy summer for YFD. Hope you’re all safe.
If that was the one near Gerbers, i can imagine they were out in force. Protecting those vehicles.
Prayers for the firefighters in Idaho!
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This is f'd up.
