Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Free smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms
Adam Boyd, a physician's assistant with North Mason Regional Fire Authority, poses with the district's newly purchased health care vehicle at the district's station in Belfair.
North Mason Regional Fire Authority firefighters are shown helping out on a fire line in Eastern Washington.
The North Mason Regional Fire Authority is having a busy summer, and it doesn't include just fighting fires.
Old Station 21 has a new tenant as Mason County agreed to a lease agreement that went into effect Aug. 1.
"They're having a discussion as to ultimately what will be in that building from a county perspective," NMRFA chief Beau Bakken told the Herald. "About a year ago, I said this date was going to come upon us quickly and here we are. It sounds like the county is to vacate the building down there in November and be into this building by November so they can do some cleanup down there. The next three or four months are going to be moving quickly from a Public Works standpoint and we are so eager to get county services, mainly the Sheriff's Department and Emergency Management into the building."
The NMRFA Mobile Integrated Health Program partnered with the Olympic College Nursing program to be a training site for clinical education experience for students, which will begin in the fall. NMRFA Physician's Assistant Adam Boyd will be taking on students and they will be going out with Boyd on calls and getting first-hand experience in the field.
Boyd said the Physician's Assistant program NMRFA launched at the beginning of the year has been going well, including purchasing a vehicle for the program. The program is also working on getting a lab setup to draw labs in the field.
"It will be really important for starting medications or diagnosing acute problems at the patients' home or when they come in here," Boyd told the Journal. "I start a lot of medications and a lot of medications require that I check labs and we have the ability to get some of those labs back within 10 minutes, others will take a day or two."
The program has joined with Labcorp for lab services and will be working on getting ultrasound and X-ray services in the field.
The program has helped 61% of patients avoid the emergency room, according to NMRFA. Since April, the program has seen 170 patients since the program began and has had 244 patient encounters. The program is getting busier due to the marketing campaign. The district hopes to hire another physician's assistant soon.
NMRFA was awarded a 2021 assistance to firefighters grant for fire prevention and safety for $46,000. That has allowed NMRFA to launch a smoke alarm and address sign program. The grant will pay for 500 carbon monoxide alarms, 2,500 reflective address signs and 4,000 smoke detectors to be installed throughout the fire district.
"One of the reasons for the push on this was probably 15 years ago, since the fire authority did its last mega push on getting smoke detectors out, getting them into homes. It dates back to the early 2000s, we had a 2-year-old who died in a fire at Twanoh Falls, it was a travel trailer fire, there was no smoke detectors installed and it was really the precursor for us getting out there and doing this," Bakken told the Journal. "The life of those detectors are coming to an end. I'm hoping people go in and actually check their smoke detectors to see an expiration date on those, whether it be the battery or the unit itself."
Bakken said he hopes to get smoke detectors into every single bedroom and common area. The address signs are red, reflective plastic material and allows for emergency responders to identify an address quickly and improve safety to get first responders on scene. Bakken said if anyone needs one of these, they will provide one and assistance with installing if needed.
NMRFA was awarded money from the state Department of Commerce for the installation of solar and solar power storage at the new station in Belfair. Executive Assistant Katie Musgrave said NMRFA received $820,000 and it is expected to be installed and functioning by July 2024. She said she envisions the solar power being able to power the 20,000-square-foot building in the event of a major disaster or power outage. They will have a backup to be able to keep providing services.
"My experience in the past is that solar power will give you a good savings of your monthly power usage because it has that storage capability," Musgrave told the Journal. "We won't know until they're on site and give us the full rundown of what that savings actually will be but it is usually quite significant."
The solar panels will be across 80% of the roof of the fire station and NMRFA will go out to bid once the project is under contract with the Department of Commerce, according to Musgrave.
NMRFA had a crew recently return to Belfair after eight days helping fight the fires in Naches, before being reassigned to the Gray Fire in Spokane to help protect structures and maintain fire lines.
Bakken said with so much happening, it's a great time to work at NMRFA.
"It's maybe the best time I've ever had working here," Bakken told the Journal. "Things are going so well, they're so progressive in the things that we're doing. We run into roadblocks here and there but we patch through them. It just seems all these things you and I have been talking about are really starting to come to fruition through the hard work of a lot of people who are doing good stuff around here."
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