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It seems that Renton, Tukwila, Seatac, District 20, North Highline and others have had another meeting to discuss the creation of a Regional Fire Authority, with Renton taking the lead.

At this point, it looks like a planning committee will be established, which is the first required (by law) step in evaluating the feasability of a RFA.

Not sure if King County Medic One is included, or if District 2 was included as well, however it is odd that North Highline is participating considering the successful annexation that passed, which will essentially gut their district financially. Perhaps they are exploring ways to maintain service levels, in light of the annexation and lower than expected revenue (like all other jurisdictions).

Could we finally see true regionalization in S. King County???

There is nothing wrong with a single -- "countywide" fire protection district or a "County Fire Department or Agency". Please keep us posted. MTM

CAR -

I know it's too early to ask, but would the King County Medic One program be disbanded if there was a regional fire authority and the RFA would take over the paramedic program and hiring guys and gals as paramedic/firfighters?

There was something I heard many years ago when the old "Saltwater Ridge" department was being looked at was that the aid cars would be manned by EMT's that were not firefighters so they could do more of the transporting of BLS patients without taking firefighters out of service, not sure how true that was but I thought I might throw that out there in case someone else heard the same thing.

It's probably much too early to say whether or not SKC Medic One would be managed by this new RFA, however the notion of having them operated by one or more Zone-3 departments has been studied before.

Some may recal a study that was conducted by Kent, Federal Way and KC EMS to evaluated the feasability of transfering KC's ALS group to either department or to split them between both. This thing went down in flames the moment the study seemed to lean towards a two department split. The paramedics IAFF local denounced this, and used their political weight to end any further discussion on a "two provider option."

They maintained that if a department wants to manage and operate the program, they should be large enough to do so, without having to split it up between two or more departments. So that was the end of that.

Few of the paramedics were against moving to a fire department operated agency, since none of them would be required to do "firefighter" stuff, unless they opted to leave their paramedic position and revert back to a firefighter. In that case, they would've gone through training.

Many like myself, have been waiting to see when the day will come when the program gets transfered to a RFA or to a department like South King (once they get a bit bigger). Lots of things are changing, and I'm certain that one day most--if not all-- of Zone-3 will be merged or organized into a RFA, and I'm sure there will be an ALS component to it.

This is what South King Fire and Rescue visualizes what their stations will be in ten years.

NORTH BATTALION
STATION 26
ENGINE 26
LADDER 26
AID 26

NEW STATION 27
ENGINE 27

STATION 28
ENGINE 28
AID 28
MEDIC UNIT

STATION 29
ENGINE 29
BATTALION 29

NEW STATION 66
ENGINE 66
MEDIC UNIT

NEW STATION 69
ENGINE 69
LADDER 69

SOUTH BATTALION
STATION 61
ENGINE 61

STATION 62
ENGINE 62
AID 62
BATTALION 61
MEDIC UNIT

STATION 63
ENGINE 63
AID 63

STATION 64
ENGINE 64
AID 64

STATION 65
ENGINE 65

NEW STATION 67
ENGINE 67

THIS IS WHERE I GOT THIS
http://www.mrsc.org/GovDocs/S77F5-SKFLeadPlan.pdf

Hmmm, interesting. And where exactly did you discover this information?

It's actually not too far off, but the "new" Station 27 and Station 69 is a little odd. Not sure where exactly they would be, unless they're planning on District 2 to operate a new northern station somewhere as a result of annexation. However, if North Highline contracts back the remaining unincorporated area back to FD 2, stations 18 and 19 would remain.

It's no secret that Chief Al (aka "Big Al") Church is keen on the regionalization concept, so it's fair that they would strategically theorize about station placement. Probably good planning on their part.

The next 5-10 years should be interesting, with Chief Church and Chief Daniels from Renton "building" their empires.

It would be three stations in Burien, 2 in Des Moines and 7 in Federal Way/Unincorporated King County.

Someone sent me an email with the link to this report.

Well this information is correct but is also a little dated. Many things have changed since this South King Fire Document was produced. Yes, the big picture is being looked at but with so many moving pieces things will change a lot. Station 67 is being looked at on property owned by SKF at 356 and Pac Hwy. Station 69 has been disucssed in the area near Dash Pt RD and Pac Hwy, currently the department doesn't have property near this area. But the computer program says a station in that area will help. It's unsure when these two stations will be built, but some day we should see them.

The RFA idea is a good thing. I think most of us know it's a good thing for the citizens and the departments. Like all mergers the big challenge is making sure everyone has a place and feels important. With cities looking at ways to reduce cost the RFA just might be on a faster track on many cities.

My prediction is that Zone-3 will be reduced to 2-3 departments in five years. This is excluding the more rural areas like areas served by District 44 and 47 and Enumclaw.

Perhaps something like this:

-South King and VRFA join forces.
-Kent Remains the same
-Renton, Burien, Tukwila, Seatac, North Highline (if there's any left), Skyway,
-South King County Medic One is transfered to one of these departments (probably not Kent)...

Just my thoughts...

I like CAR's scenario and this is another scenario that I recently heard,

Tukwila (with the exception of 54), Renton, Skyway (Dist.20) and Kent merging with VRFA
Noth Highline, Burien and SeaTac, 54's merging with South King.

A lot could happen with this RFA that would better serve the citizens...............................

Hmmm, I've seen this configuration before....Oh yeah, it's Zone-3 and old Zone-4 before they combined.

Your scenario is just about exactly that, with I-5 the dividing line between two departments that would stretch north and south and parallel to each other.

That would be very ironic IF that actually came to pass, as it reminds me of the Saltwater Ridge merger discussions, where all of the old Zone-4 departments tried to work out a merger (excluding the POS).

That went down in flames for a variety of reasons, mostly because of the stupid commissioners from each of the departments, who couldn't see the "light" way back then.

Full circle I tell ya!