On January 1, 2005, the Snohomish County Fire District takes over the operation and management of the Mountlake Terrace Fire Department, formally ending the existence of a fire department that was nearly as old as the city of Mountlake Terrace itself.
Concerns about fire protection contributed to Mountlake Terrace’s birth as an incorporated city in 1954. Established as a housing development on logged-over land in 1949, Mountlake Terrace was one of the fastest-growing communities in Washington state in the 1950s. World War II veterans with young families moved into the area as fast as builders could build houses for them. But there was no fire department, no police department, no paved streets, no sewer system, and a woefully inadequate water system.
County Management, Part I
McMahan and others complained about the lack of proper equipment, the unreliable municipal water supply, and organizational problems that undermined fire safety. For example, the fire district operated out of four separate stations, each with its own phone number. Residents needed to know in advance which station would respond to fires in which neighborhoods and which station to call if the first station called wasn’t manned.
Police protection, which was provided by the Snohomish County sheriff’s department, was equally haphazard. For McMahan, the final straw came when someone attempted to break into his house one evening while he was on duty in a Seattle fire station. His wife, who was home at the time of the attempted burglary, called the sheriff’s office. No one responded until 4 p.m. the next day.
Shortly after that incident, in July 1953, McMahan approached the Edmonds city council, to see if Edmonds might be interested in annexing Mountlake Terrace. He was rebuffed. He then led the effort to incorporate Mountlake Terrace as its own municipality. Among the first actions taken by the new city, after it was incorporated on November 29, 1954, were the organization of a fire department and a police department.
County Management, Part 2
By 2000, the fire department’s main station, built as part of a civic center in 1961, was on the verge of being condemned as a safety hazard. The firefighters lacked modern equipment and the kind of specialized training -- such as hazardous waste response -- required under new state regulations. At the same time, the city’s revenues were shrinking. The financial pressure led the city to sign a temporary contract for fire and emergency medical services with the Snohomish County Fire District in March 2001.
In 2004, as the council debated the prospect of giving up its fire department on a more permanent basis, administrative services director Scott Hugill said Mountlake Terrace had saved $380,000 each year by contracting with the fire district, and that it could expect to save at least $700,000 a year under a new, longer term contract. The savings would come by eliminating duplicate administrative services and incorporating paramedics into firefighting crews rather than contracting for separate emergency medical services. In addition, the smaller of the city’s two fire stations would be closed and replaced by a county-owned station.
Supporters of the merger promised that a regional fire-and-paramedic system would be more effective as well as less expensive, and that crews would be able to respond to emergencies anywhere in the city within four minutes. They also pointed out that such consolidation had become a statewide trend. More than 80 cities had joined in some way with a neighboring fire district in order to reduce labor and equipment costs, including Mountlake Terrace’s neighbors, Marysville, Monroe, and Snohomish.
On November 20, 2004, the council voted five to two to pay the county for fire and emergency medical services, for at least the next 20 years. The Brier city council, which had contracted with Mountlake Terrace for fire protection, agreed to transfer its contract to the county as well. The fire district commissioners approved the contract the next day, with the stipulation that the main fire station, on 58th Avenue W, be replaced or extensively remodeled. The building contained asbestos, was not earthquake-safe, and lacked such essential safety features as a fire wall and emergency exits from the firefighters’ sleeping quarters. Firefighters had been sleeping in a trailer in front of the station for nearly a year. "The facility is substandard and disrespectful to our employees that have to be stationed there," said district fire commissioner Larry Hadland (The Seattle Times, December 29, 2004).
The 27 employees of the Mountlake Terrace Fire Department became employees of Fire District One as of January 1, 2005. The department’s fire trucks and other equipment became district property. The city continues to own both the old, cramped, unsafe fire station as well as the new, state-of-the-art facility completed in April 2006, next door.
