Chief's Monthly Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District 12
For the Meeting April 14, 2026
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: April 3, 2026
The purpose of this report is to update the Board of Fire Commissioners, Officers Management Team, and fire personnel on recent department activities and progress on strategic objectives.
Personnel
- Current Staffing: Total personnel 95, with 82 on-call members (54 operations, 9 support, 13 Recruits, 1 light duty and 3 on leave). A Cadet Recruit resigned.
Interlocal
- Designated Crisis Responder Program: Last month a meeting with Yakima County, Law Enforcement, Ambulance, Comprehensive Health and Fire was held to provide an update on the program and identify goals for the future of the program. Presently there are four DCR’s, working split shifts between the upper and lower valley. The need for DCR’s seems to be outpacing availability, we identified some specific metric to measure in order to provide the BOCC with data on needs.
- Hazard Mitigation Plan:We have met and updated our portion of the plan, meetings will continue throughout the year until the 2027 update.
- County Residential Burn Restrictions:I have been unable to find any sign this has come before the BOCC in review of their agendas and minutes.
- Shaw and Wide Hollow Creek:Attended a meeting regarding flooding from these creeks, the County has funding to re-route Shaw creek from running along Tieton Drive by digging a channel from Tieton Drive to Wide Hollow where it will combine with Wide Hollow Creek. Some improvements will be made to Wide Hollow Creek to ease flooding and handle the additional water. At this time, it appears there will be no impact on the District.
Department Training and Safety Prepared by DC Johnston
March Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Workshop (Shock and Endocrine Emergencies), Live Fire Evolutions, and Brush Truck Review with Annual Fire Shelter Video & Throw.
Developed the April Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill / SCBA Quarterly, OTEP Module 2 (Behavioral Emergencies), Annual Wildland Refresher, Water Supply and Hose Deployment, and Wildland Pumps / Hoses / & Porta Tanks.
On March 14th Lt Justin Nickolaus and FF Isaac Shaw co-instructed the Driver / Operator Academy.
On March 21st I assisted YCFD #4 as an Evaluator with their IFSAC HazMat skills testing. We had five of our members participate in the testing process.
Lt Andrew Pfaff taught an NWCG Leadership Class (L-280) over the weekend of March 28 & 29, 10 students representing various agencies attended the class.
The recruits have finished their classroom portion of Wildland Training, their Field Day is scheduled for May 16, this will be a joint venture with Districts 4, 5, and us.
Recruitment / Retention Prepared by DC Johnston
We received a couple of applications in March for the Fall Recruit Academy, we are advertising on our station reader board signs I will also be placing our roadway signs out in the coming week.
Operations
In March there were a total of 73 alarms in the district, 19 were ambulance calls.
Incidents: YTD Incidents by Zone YTD Zone
Station 51 9 20 25 70 (30%)
Station 52 7 37 21 95 (40%)
Station 53 5 21 20 51 (21%)
Station 54 4 12 7 21 (9%)
Station 50 28 67 237
Yakima 1 1
Ambulance Only 17 65
Ambulance Lift 2 14
Total 237
Incident Type: Month Type YTD
Fire 9 5 bldg(2M/AA), 2 Vegetation, 2 power 26
EMS 53 5 MVC 179
Service Call 6 4 Lift, 2 Smoke alarm 24
No Emergency 5 4 outdoor burning, 1 CO 8
Action Taken: Month Type YTD
Canceled enroute 7 3 EMS, 2 AFA, 2 M/AA 21
Extinguishment 7 3 bldg, 2 veg, 2 power 16
Provide BLS 49 164
Assist Invalid 4 19
Investigate 6 4 burning, 1 AMA, 1 CO 16
Other 0 1
Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond) Automatic Aid Given
From Highland 0 To Highland 1
From Yakima 1 To Yakima 0
From Gleed 0 To Union Gap 1
To BIA 0
YTD 2 YTD 12
Mutual Aid Received 0 Mutual Aid Given 0
YTD 0 YTD 3
One shop fire that extended into the attached home resulted in $281,400 in loss last month.
After reviewing 3 months of data regarding turnout times, it was determined an average of 20 seconds call processing time needs to be added to our target times. This isn’t perfect but much closer to reality. The new target for on-call is 360 seconds, on duty is 80 seconds for EMS, and 100 seconds’ fire. The updated time requirements over the three months added one on-call incident in target and 20 on-duty incidents. I have updated all three months below:
NFPA 1720 Responses for rural areas (6 FFs on scene within 14 minutes, 80% of the time). Incidents: 1 mo, 4 yr, target met mo. 1 (100%), yr 4 (100%), target not met: mo. 0 (0%) yr. 0 (0%).
Fire Prevention/Public Education Prepared by Officer Boisselle
I am working on securing a co-instructor for SafeSitter, we will then pick dates for a summer class.
EDITH House will visit 2nd graders at the three elementary schools in our District next week.
Logistics Updates
- Apparatus Updates:
- Tender 52: Been in contact with General Fire, port-a-tank storage planned they cannot source and will be working on plan B.
- Engines: Completion set for July 2026.
- Tender 53: Steel for tank being fabricated, truck is still in District.
· Completed: Radio maintenance, all brush equipment ordered.
· In Progress: Landscaping, asphalt crack sealing, job scope for Station 52 parking lot.
· Station 52 & 54 Generators: Generators have shipped, Fire Marshal requiring a permit now, contractor has applied for the permits.
Grants:
· DNR: Applied for an Ops grant to outfit the new engines with radios.
· 52 Parking lot: Approved in supplemental budget and recently signed by the Governor.
Community Engagement and Events
· Association Events: Egg Hunt March 28th had around 120 kids attend.
· Red Cross: Blood Drive collected 40 units of blood last month.
· Chip it, Don’t Burn it: May 2 and 30, June 27, and July 18th. We will be renting the chipper from the Conservation District again this year and have reserved the dumpsters.
Respectfully,
Nathan Craig
Fire Chief