Chief's Monthly Report

Fire Department

Monthly Progress Report

West Valley Fire Department

Yakima County Fire District 12

For the Meeting February 10, 2026

Agenda Topic:             Department Monthly Progress Report

Prepared By:              Chief Nathan Craig

Date Prepared:           February 5, 2026

The purpose of this report is to update the Board of Fire Commissioners, Officers Management Team, and fire personnel on recent department activities and progress on strategic objectives.

Personnel

• Current Staffing: Total personnel 98, with 84 on-call members (55 operations, 9 support, 14 Recruits, 3 medical and 3 on leave). 

Strategic Plan

• Action Plan: In the packet.

Interlocal

• WSRB: The “W” classification has been approved by OIC and will be available to insurance providers March 1^st.  This will provide a classification for property more than 5 miles but less than 7 miles from one of our stations to be classified as 4W instead of a 9.
• DNR Mapping:Last year the legislature tasked the DNR with developing a map of wildland urban interface risk areas, the map is to be used by code divisions to determine when a building should be built to the WUI code.  They are holding meetings around the state; one was held in our training center last month.  I attended the meeting and the computer program they have created is impressive, when the data and maps are available, I believe they will be useful in community risk reduction and guiding us to areas of the District to focus on wildfire prevention and home hardening efforts.
• OIC Rating System Study: 2025 legislation also directed OIC to evaluate the system used for property protection class ratings.  OIC hired a firm LM2 to facilitate a series of interested party engagement meetings over the next two months to evaluate the current schedule and determine if changes are necessary.  As the WFC/WSRB Chair, I was requested to join their work group, our first meeting was last month, I don’t anticipate any further meetings until the engagements are completed.
• Yakima County Hazard Mitigation Plan:OEM has started meetings to update the plan with a goal of completion by March 2027.

Department Training and Safety Preparedby DC Johnston

January Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill, Search with SCBA Quarterly, State of the Department, and Dry Hose Evolutions.

Developed the February Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Module 1 (Shock and Endocrine Emergencies), and SCBA Team Building.

On January 7^th eight of our Firefighters participated in Lieutenant assessment testing for an eligibility list.

I attended an IFSAC Fire Officer III class the week of Jan 12-16 and passed my written and practical testing on Jan 23^rd. 

On January 22^nd we had eight members sized for turnout gear.  We are trying a new brand of gear this year, Lakeland.

On January 31^st Chief Craig taught an Officer Development class, four of our members and three from Highland Fire attended.

Recruitment & Retention Prepared by DC Johnston

The February Recruit Class attended orientation on Feb 2, followed by half of the Advanced First Aid classes on Feb 7 and 8 as well as their first regular class on Feb 9^th.  This class has 14 new members (11 Firefighters, 3 Cadets, and 1 Support) we will also be picking up four from Highland.

Operations 

In January there were a total of 79 alarms in the district, 33 were ambulance calls.

Incidents:                                                         YTD                   Incidents by Zone       YTD Zone               

Station 51                   6                     6                                  18                    18 (22%)

Station 52                   13                   13                                39                    39 (49%)

Station 53                   10                   10                                15                    15 (19%)

Station 54                   5                     5                                  7                         7 (10%)

Station 50                   12                   12                                                         79

Yakima                        0                                                        

Ambulance Only         33 (7 Lift)        33                               

Total                                                     79

Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond)    Automatic Aid Given                                    

From Highland             0                      To Highland                0

From Yakima               1                      To Yakima                   1

From Gleed                 0                      To BIA                         0

From Union Gap         0                      To Union Gap             4

YTD                 1                                  YTD                 5         

Mutual Aid Received             0                                  Mutual Aid Given       2

            YTD                             0                                              YTD                 2         

This was the first month of input into the new NERIS reporting system. The system does not track all the stats that we have typically tracked in the past, such as dollar loss and response times.  Until we are more familiar with the system and its capabilities, we are tracking certain stats by hand. The report writing has also changed, and it is a challenge to say the least. We are working with ImageTrend to get the issues resolved; however, many are system specific and there is only so much we can do on our end.

There was a total of $80,750 in losses last month, two separate residential fires caused $35,750 in damage, a detached shop resulted in $30k total losses, a shop fire for $35k in loss and vehicle fires caused $15k in total damage. 

NFPA 1720 Responses for rural areas (6 FFs on scene within 14 minutes, 80% of the time).             Incidents: 3 mo, 3 yr, target met mo. 3 (100%), yr 3 (100%), target not met: mo. 0 (0%) yr. 0 (0%). 

Budget/Finance Prepared by Officer Boisselle

The Department of Retirement System audit is closed out.  All back reporting for the Board members formerly in the system, has been completed.

Logistics Updates

• Apparatus Updates:
• Tender 52: In progress
• Engines: Completion set for July 2026.
• Tender 53: Work starts in March, pre-payment.
• Rescue 52/54 switch: Rescue switch taking place this month.
• Reserve Brush: 252, 253, surplus Expedition, plan in place for reserves.

·       Completed: Exercise Equipment, watch desk Station 51.

·       In Progress: Rehab safety vests, pagers

·       Station 52 & 54 Generators: Project awarded, on order no ship date yet.

·       State Surplus: We purchased a rowing machine, ice machine, toolboxes, CAT5 cable, and flagging tape during our last visit.  They are keeping an eye out for equipment to assist in our “Chip it, Don’t Burn it” program.

Grants

·       DNR: Submitted Phase II grant for wildland equipment Brush 253.

·       52 Parking lot: Developed a flyer regarding our budget request and delivered to committee members while in Olympia.

Community Engagement and Events

·        Commissioners Quarterly: February 19^th Highland.

o   Association Events: Awards Banquet March 7^th.

o   WSRB All Team Meeting: I have been invited to serve as a panelist for Campfire Stories: Lessons from the Field.  WSRB would like to highlight the important work the fire service provides throughout the state and how our organizations work together.  This perspective will help their employees better serve all their stakeholders.

Respectfully,

Nathan Craig, Fire Chief