Local, leveraged, faster: A practical path forward for firefighting resource management in greater Whitefish areas

We commend the Whitefish Fire Service Area (WFSA) for hiring DC Haas. The last time the WFSA went public with a decision was their famously failed “go it alone” salvo in 2020. Five years later, they decided they want to convert the oversized WFSA into a Fire District enabling more revenues with a mil rate tax model. In order to support this decision a property owner will want to know more — how will their tax dollars be spent? What will be the expected result? How long until results are realized? How will local neighborhood investments be prioritized? Important questions!

We are faced with a conundrum regarding fire and emergency services resource management in the Flathead and specifically the greater Whitefish Community. Thankfully, the City of Whitefish has generously led the way in building up professional staff and upgrading assets to address structural fires and EMT services. Much can be built from this strong base. And what is absolutely clear, we will all be paying substantially more for emergency services in the future because more resources are needed already, insurance companies will continue to tighten underwriting rules and standards, our demographics are not going the right way to make volunteer staffing viable, and the City can’t subsidize the surrounding areas indefinitely. USDA data reveals that essentially the entirety of the Whitefish range from the City to Upper Whitefish Lake has burned at least once since 1900. We aren’t ready should it happen again, insurance carriers know this, and we’ve been lucky.

What is needed is a hybrid model. Neighborhood specific solutions and plans to reduce fire risks and improve response times, access to water, and equipment staged locally that is fit for the conditions. There are dozens of neighborhoods across the WFSA that have unique issues and needs. How will converting the oversized 75 square mile WFSA into an oversized Fire District status accelerate practical neighborhood specific solutions? Before you sign their petition, we encourage you to attend one of their monthly meetings and ask them what’s the solution for your neighborhood and when will you see an impact? Every neighborhood needs to actively engage faster and shape practical solutions that the housing density they have can afford. Local solutions could include establishing an active Fire Wise program, developing water sources to enable nearby replenishment for tankers and brush trucks, installing hydrants, staging brush trucks to supplement the DNRC (and others) during fire season, building local sub-stations with equipment engineered for your road conditions, etc.  

At the same time, all of us need to support a community-wide professional staffing model with centralized leadership and administration. In the absence of a Fire Authority (not yet ordained in Montana) or active county management, we need to support the City of Whitefish financially so they can continue to grow their resource base to fill these leadership and capability gaps. Hence, a hybrid model of smaller localized fire districts enabling neighborhoods to self-organize and address their specific needs, while outsourcing operational management and staffing to the City; essentially making the City the de facto Fire Authority we don’t have but need.

Without this hybrid model or an active neighborhood driven governance model within the WFSA, how will your neighborhood get prioritized for investment? Having monitored the WFSA board conversations over the past five years, our neighborhood has elected to self-organize in order to realize tangible results from our tax dollars in the future. We too are launching a petition to form the proposed North Lake Fire District which would fundraise to support neighborhood projects and resourcing (tax efficient funding) and in parallel apply our to be mil rate to fund City of Whitefish staffing, leadership and operations.  

The Whitefish City Council unanimously embraced our vision and plan at their April 7 meeting. We aspire to establish a sub-station at the north end of the lake resourced to provide supplemental resources for structural firefighting and enhanced seasonal support for wildfire suppression. And in addition, partner with the City to help fund operations for a new sub station near Big Mountain Road. We believe specific solutions are also needed to support a number of the subdivisions within the proposed North Lake Fire District as they have narrow roads, lack water replenishment systems and have yet to adopt Fire Wise practices. To make this happen across the greater Whitefish Community requires mobilizing locally; hope is not a strategy and apathy is an anchor. Getting engaged is much better than getting in line. We are not the only neighborhood mobilizing, there are others. And again, we salute DC Haas for his work as it prompts public debate. We look forward to collaborating with everyone on the shared resourcing model mentioned above. Those property owners within the proposed North Lake Fire District please anticipate active communications in the coming weeks and months. Join us in making practical solutions happen faster. 

Whitefish Service Area residents: Tom Bandy, Phil Norman, Melissa Best, Joe Raudabaugh, Tom Burk, David Rubin, Wayne Kasworm, Nathan Purdy, David Trousdale, Mark Mance, Randy Wheeler, Brian Massey, Debra Wolf.