CLARK COUNTY IN THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF WASHINGTON STATE has a portion of the county that is served by the East County Fire & Rescue District.  While the 58-sq. mi. district has its own fire department, they have always relied on the neighboring city of Camas for emergency ambulance service.

However, the mayor of Camas has announced that the ambulances will no longer respond into the district for non-emergency calls.  The residents of the area have twice voted down a tax to provide funds for the service.

The Clark County Columbian reports:

Camas also may stop its critical, emergency runs into the 58-square-mile East County Fire & Rescue district soon if residents of the rural area north and east of Washougal don’t change their minds and agree to pay their share of the costs, Camas Fire Chief Leo Leon added.

Leon said he will seek city council approval to cut off all paramedic service to the east county district unless voters there decide to pay for the service. The move has been under discussion for several months, he said.

Any emergency calls are answered by the fire department, which has EMT-level FF’s, for initial treatment, but they have no transportation services.

About 19% of Camas’ calls are in the East County District.  The Camus chief says that not only is it costing them too much money, but any calls into the area tie up their ambulances for long periods of time.

“Every time I send an ambulance to east county, I am reducing the service to those who are paying for it. That’s not fair to those paying for the service,” he said.  The Camas FD is the only fire department in Clark County that provides ambulance services.

Read the full story in the Columbian HERE.
Camas Fire Dept. WEBSITE.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed