On [Wednesday] at 10:30 a.m. dignitaries, firefighters, and the public came together to witness the first steps of building a new fire station for East Umatilla Fire & Rescue on the corner of Bannister Road and Mill Street in Weston, a Facebook post reads.
Chief Dave Baty had a family emergency he needed to attend to so Assistant Chief Jeremy Lasater was the MC for the festivities.
This was a historic event. The previous fire department: East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District purchased the land in July of 2011, with our previous Chief Don Jackson was where the dream started.
In 2017, EUCRFPD made an Intergovernmental agency agreement with Helix Fire Department to work as one department. In 2019 the communities voted to come together as one fire district under EUCRFPD. May of 2020, we asked the communities again to combine East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District, Helix Fire Department and Athena Fire Department as one entity called East Umatilla Fire & Rescue. There was a 3 to 1 vote to combine all three departments. There is an intergovernmental agreement between the new EUF&R with East Umatilla County Ambulance Area Health District at this time.
Chief Baty had contacted Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer about a grant to loan the money for a new fire station. Shafer called Senator Bill Hansell with Baty in the room and they discussed the need of the new station. Senator Hansell had the idea to use Capital Construction Funds (lottery funds) to get on a list and maybe get some money. He then met with the East Umatilla Fire & Rescue Board of Directors to try and “make things happen”. They needed about 5 million dollars to work with.
Senator Hansell explained that there was some federal grant money called ARPA that was given to each district. 4 million was given to each Senator and 2 million was given to each House Representative. “This came from just an idea to where we are today” said Senator Hansell.
House Representative Bobby Levy was approached by Senator Hansell and asked if she was willing to donate half of her ARPA funds to this fire district. They took a tour of the facility and she couldn’t believe there was a working fire station in some crazy conditions. First and foremost, trying to get fire trucks in and out of a steep incline to respond to each call.
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Posted: Jun 11, 2022
Clark-Cowlitz firefighters rescued a man and his two daughters from drowning in the East Fork Lewis River after their boat capsized Saturday afternoon.
Firefighters from Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue were dispatched around 1 p.m. to a report of a drowning east of Ridgefield.
The first crew arrived at 1:16 p.
- PUB DATE: 6/11/2022 5:00:00 PM - SOURCE: Centralia Chronicle
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Posted: Jun 11, 2022
Following a break-in that resulted in more than $100,000 worth of damage to the Homewood Acres fire station, an arrest has been made, reports patch.com. However, details are scarce.
Video cameras caught the suspects as they entered the facility through a window and proceeded to move through the building, wrecking every room in the station, FA reported at the time. Firefighters said the only thing stolen was approximately $160 in petty cash and some snacks.
The department says insurance will cover most of the damage, and a GoFundMe page has been set up—and raised $13,844 as of this post.
“On the morning of 5-28-22, in broad daylight, 4 juveniles broke into the Homewood Acres Volunteer Fire Department and vandalized our Station,” the GoFundMe page says. “The children, aged 9-14, caused well over $100,000 worth of damage. 11 windows were broken out, and the building completely ransacked. If it could be broken, they broke it. We have insurance that will cover the replacement of most things but need odds and ends covered. We still need to maintain service to our residents while we are recovering. Any help would be greatly appreciated and will go a long way to help our community. Thank you!!!”
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