Garfield County Auditor’s Office

General information

Garfield County Fire District #1 is located in the SE corner of Washington State in the County of Garfield, and is the only Fire District in this county. The county seat is at Pomeroy, the county's only city. It was named after U.S. President James A. Garfield. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 718 square miles of which 710 square miles is land and 8 square miles is water. It is part of the Palouse, a wide and rolling prairie-like region of the middle Columbia basin. Garfield County Fire District #1 is one of the top 10 largest fire Districts in the state with a first due response area of 540 square miles. 534 of those miles are very rural farm/agriculture areas with a total population of 766. The other 6 square miles make up the only town and county seat, Pomeroy. Pomeroy has a total population of 1,525. The other 170 square miles of the county is made up of United State Forest Service property, Garfield County Fire District #1 has a mutual aid agreement for this area for initial attack and mutual aid.

Garfield County Fire District #1 operates out of 1 fire station which is located in Pomeroy. Department apparatus is comprised of a total of 12 apparatus: two structure engines (a 1970 Howe and a 1989 Central); one 1995 brush truck;, five grass trucks which vary in age from 1963 to 2003; one light rescue two BLS ambulances; and one command vehicle. 5 trucks fit in the Fire Station in Pomeroy (the structure engines, brush truck, a grass truck and the rescue). The remaining four grass trucks are located strategically throughout the county in buildings donated by farmers; these farmers are also members of the Fire District so response time for a first in grass truck in the outlying areas is shortened substantially. The ambulances are parked in two separate donated garages at the local type IV hospital.

Garfield County Fire District #1 has a total of 44 members, of those 43 of those members are volunteer. Starting January 1st, 2011 a full time Chief was hired making him the Districts first full time employee. Of the 44 members 30 of those members are firefighters and have various medical certifications from First-Aid to Advanced EMT, some of those members also respond on the ambulance. The other 14 members of the department are medical responders that ride the ambulance only.

Over the last three years Garfield County Fire District #1 has averaged 261 annual calls. The vast majority of those calls are medical in nature; medical response, trauma response, and interfaculty transfers. Fire responses have averaged approximately 32 per year, 6 of which are typically working structure fires.