The Fire Department will have to go an extra two months understaffed after the city abruptly - and without offering an explicit explanation - took the unusual step of scrapping a new list of screened and tested recruits. The entire process now has to be repeated. The delay in holding a training academy means the department, which is short three firefighters and coping with long-term illnesses and injuries, risks running up costs, according to Chief Oscar Elmasian.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

 Fire Department pumper. Spartan Metro Star cab and chassis; Cummins ISL9 450-hp engine; Waterous CSU 1,250-gpm pump; Pro Poly 750-gallon tank.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from Pierce County converged on Tacoma on Nov. 30 to help after police Officer Reginald “Jake” Gutierrez was shot. For the first time, the county’s year-old computer operation — a $5 million-plus system that helps dispatch the county’s 41 fire and law enforcement departments — was put to the test with a massive law enforcement response.
- PUB DATE: 2/5/2017 1:51:13 AM - SOURCE: Tacoma News Tribune

Two apartments were severely damaged and at least two sustained smoke damage in a fire Saturday afternoon north of the Central Washington University campus in Ellensburg. Ellensburg Police Department was first on scene to the fire at Campus Village Apartments, 925 E. 18th Ave., just after 2 p.m., EPD Sgt.
- PUB DATE: 2/5/2017 1:46:38 AM - SOURCE: Ellensburg Daily Record

Several people from the Yakima Fire Department recently retired, leaving the department even more short-staffed. Now the fire department is seeking approval from city council to apply for a three-year federal grant to increase staffing. The SAFER grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would cover part of a firefighter’s salary for the first two or three years and then potentially the whole salary after that.
- PUB DATE: 2/4/2017 3:28:34 PM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS 29 Yakima