About Us
Historical and Future Perspectives
“The vision for the West Valley Fire Department is that it will continue to be a vital part of the social and economic structure of the community as it grows and matures into a structured and vibrant suburban community”
Introduction
This page focuses on establishing a vision for the department over the next ten years. The historical development leading to the present situation will serve as a basis for projecting the future of the organization.
It is understood that in changing times it is difficult to predict just what challenges the department will face or how the community will change. However, to accommodate these changes, it is expected that this “vision for the future” may change from year-to-year as economic and political situations shift with impacts on funding and customer expectations.
Beliefs and Intents
It is believed that over the next ten years:
- The Westerly boundaries of the District will not change significantly.
- Annexations by the City of Yakima on the Eastern boundaries will be slower than expected and will not have significant impact on the administration of the District.
- Service delivery needs within the urban growth boundaries in the District will continue to escalate because of population growth and commercial development.
- Revenue will not increase at the same pace as needs for services to do tax payer concern and a limited economy.
- Volunteer fire personnel will continue to be the central core of emergency response within the District.
- Collaboration with adjoining fire departments to conserve resources can be productive and will result in reduced cost of service delivery
- With careful planning and preparation, consolidation of fire districts will reduce redundant administrative costs and should result in improved services and/or reduced costs.
It is the intent in coming years to:
- Organize and develop District emergency services to meet the increasing workloads anticipated as a result of population growth and commercial development.
- Continue to develop, organize and support a primarily volunteer emergency response system within the District.
- Initiate and encourage a cooperative spirit with the City of Yakima to assure smooth transition of annexed areas with respect to transfer of resources and coordinated service delivery.
- Continue to initiate, lead when appropriate and cooperate in county-wide fire protection planning efforts.
- Anticipate and project revenue needs and alternatives to attain the greatest degree of efficiency in use of resources.
- Develop long-range plans that are flexible to changing times.
- Involve the community in balancing available resources with desired services.
Fire and Life Safety in Yakima County
Twelve fire districts and fourteen cities provide fire and life safety services in Yakima County. However four of these cities contract with the fire district that surrounds their city as the most economical way to meet this responsibility. Each of the entities operates independently under policy direction from either a council in the case of cities or a commission in the case of districts.
While each fire entity operates independently, they also have many intergovernmental agreements to enhance their collective performance, including:
- Mutual aid and assistance when an emergency overwhelms the resources of a single department.
- Mutual response when agreements have been made to better utilize resources.
- Cooperative training opportunities, such as the new firefighter recruit school.
- Emergency dispatch through a central communication center.
- Collective financial support for a firefighting support tanker, serving the entire County.
Fire districts generally provide emergency medical response services for basic life support and extrication in cooperation with private ambulance systems that transport and deliver advanced life support. In this integrated fashion, each department operates independently but has the support and depth of resources from the whole County in time of need.
District 12 Historical Development
Yakima County Fire District 12, also known as West Valley Volunteer Fire Department, was officially formed in 1960 after a petition had been successfully circulated throughout West Valley and presented to the County Commissioners. The official formation of the District allowed the newly formed District to collect taxes and respond to all citizens within the District without additional charge.
Before that time, residents were asked to pay a $15 yearly fee to belong to the “Rural Fire Protection Agency”. Under that system, if a member’s home caught fire, the Department would respond free of charge. If a non-member’s home caught fire, they would be asked to pay for the service.
Also in 1960, the new Fire Commission was formed including Art Lange, Walt Gano and Elton Trollope. At this time, the Department had a 1952 Ford fire engine, which was housed in a building near Wiley City. There were about 30 volunteers assigned to what was later to become Station 2.
In the fall of 1960, two new GMC fire engines were purchased; one went to the Wiley City Station and the other to a newly leased building at 62nd and Tieton Drive. The Tieton Drive Station soon became known as Station One.
In 1962, Station Three was built on donated land at the corner of Carlson Road and Tieton Drive, North of Mountainview School. Yet, there was still a need for better spacing of fire equipment to serve the 125 square mile area.
In 1966, Station Four was added on Tampico land donated by Frank Weed. In the same year, Station One was moved to its present location at 7707 Tieton Drive. The original 1952 Ford fire engine was sold to Layman Logging Company in 1978. In the following years, the department remained essentially the same, except for gradual growth adjacent to the City of Yakima and an ever-increasing workload, primarily due to increased population and the addition of emergency medical response into traditional fire department services.
In the early 1980’s, the department made a gradual transition into emergency medical response services by purchasing its first aid vehicle. Since that time, the delivery of emergency medical response services have escalated into approximately 80% of the total response incidents for the Department.
Present Situation
The organizational design has not changed substantially in recent years. The District still serves about 125 square miles with five fire stations with a compliment of volunteers at each. However, the District now has five fulltime employees who serve to support the administrative, facilities, apparatus, training and personnel needs essential to assure an effective, professional volunteer department.
In 1993, Yakima County completed the urban growth plan for the area and established urban growth boundaries for the City of Yakima that extend into the more populated area of the District. Over the last several years, the City has annexed several small areas from the District’s boundary where they intermingled with the City. While two of these annexations have been officially completed and all service responsibilities transferred to the City, two others that were planned for annexation in 2001 have been cancelled due to a State Supreme Court ruling that the annexation process was not constitutional. With this historic and epic Supreme Court ruling that affects many jurisdictions and annexations throughout the State, the future growth for will be heavily impacted.
It was expect
