STEVENS COUNTY, Wash. — The Stevens County Fire Department is warning its residents that it may take longer to respond to your calls after one of it's trucks was stolen and another was badly damaged.
Stevens County emergency services have had a rough week. The fire chief for Fire District 2 not only noticed one of their trucks was severely damaged, but someone had also stolen their wildfire truck as well. Chief Rick Anderson says this means his station is out of service for the foreseeable future.
Stevens County Fire District 2 is ready to handle any challenge that comes their way. But, operating without its only two functioning firetrucks is one challenge they never expected.
Chief Rick Anderson is the one who discovered the missing truck.
"As the fire chief, you know, you always kind of glanced at your facilities to drive by and I drove by and I slammed on the brakes and said, 'All right, who left the door open,'" Anderson said.
To his surprise, the brush truck was gone. Then, he checked the structure fire truck and found several things missing, including the radio and batteries.
"It was like, 'Oh, this can't be happening.' You know, we're just a little volunteer fire department and this is kind of a big issue," Anderson said.
He says it takes his team about 15 minutes to respond to calls for service. But without their trucks, they are relying on neighboring stations to respond for the time being.
"So, that means the next available truck is Hunters. So, that puts another 15 minutes out to 20 minutes out for initial response," Anderson said.
Anderson is anxious to find the stolen truck and get it back into service. That's because he says wildfires are the biggest threat to his community, and wildfire season is quickly approaching.
"The optimistic side of me says somebody's going to call and say, 'hey, it's parked under a tree come and get it,'" Anderson said.
Chief Anderson, who is also the 911 director for Stevens County, heard the news about an impaired driver ramming into a county ambulance. Deputies arrested the driver for DUI.
"As we often say in the 911 Center, you just can't make this stuff up," Anderson said.
Emergency officials hope this is the end of a streak of really bad luck for the sake of their community.