Office of Emergency Services staff faced 'baptism by fire'

Mapping out how to deal with disasters dominated Flathead County's Office of Emergency Services in 2007.

The year 2008 should see the office rehearsing and tweaking those plans.

"It's no good to have music without an orchestra to play it," said Mark Peck, director of the county's Office of Emergency Services.

Peck took over as the county's new emergency director in late 2005 - a slot that had been filled by temporary managers for the previous 18 months.

Peck started 2007 as a one-man operation.

But as the year unfolded, the office picked up Cindy Mullaney, Pondera County's emergency director, as Flathead County's new assistant emergency services director.

Mullaney came in July - just as the summer's forest fires cranked up.

"She literally had a baptism by fire," Peck said.

The office picked up a temporary and possibly permanent administrative support position currently filled by Kristi Massey. The search for a fire-services area manager begins next month.

Here is how the Office of Emergency Services' projects unfolded in 2007, and appear to be headed in 2008.

Fire service area

The most-populated areas of Flathead County are covered by 19 rural and city fire departments. However, much of the county and plenty of houses are outside of those fire districts.

An example would be the North Fork area.

Homes are being built more and more in deeply forested areas. They pay a fire-protection fee to the county government and are served by the nearest fire district.

The new fire service area manager's job will be get the homeowners involved with making their lots more fireproof so future forest fires will threaten their houses less.

The manager also will keep tabs on housing developments away from any fire districts. The idea is for the county government to stress fire prevention measures as it approves new homes being built dozens of miles away from the nearest fire station.

And the new manager will help rural fire districts map out how to more effectively serve the outlying areas.

Peck believes this approach will be the first of its kind in the state.

When forest fires increase in intensity, the demands on command and control grow. Outside Type III fire-control teams are routinely called in.

Peck believes that local firefighters have the experience and skills to create a Flathead-based Type III team.

A fledgling local team would have to train as a group to get the proper certifications.

Such an effort would provide increased local knowledge and experience in managing big Flathead area fires, Peck said.

Consolidating dispatch

Efforts to merge the county's four dispatch centers have gone slowly.

A site still has to be picked. Revenue and expense figures require more work. More planning is needed.

Meanwhile, the city-county 911 board hopes to move the Flathead County Sheriff's Office's 911 center to Peck's office area with upgraded equipment.

After the move, Peck would supervise the 911 center. Also, he is supposed to study how the upgraded department operates as he works on budgets and procedures for a consolidated 911 center, which his office will likely supervise.

That effort recently received two injections of cash.

President Bush signed a bill that should provide $250,000 to Flathead

County for a mobile emergency radio system. This translates to fire and police chiefs having radios in their vehicle that connect with the other chiefs and the dispatch centers.

This money likely will take a few months to work through the federal bureaucracy before it ends up in Flathead County.

The state is allocating $65,000 to the county's Office of Emergency Services to install some basic upgraded equipment that will become the platform for later upgrades to the 911 center's equipment.

Threat analysis

The office has been working threat analysis during the past year and expects to finish in January or February.

This is essentially a list of the most-likely emergencies and what needs to be tackled to improve responses to them.

The current draft tentatively lists the Flathead's most likely emergencies as wild fires, floods, earthquakes, storms and avalanches.

That draft identifies the biggest need as adding fire-related safeguards to lots and homes built next to forests.

Master plan

The office has been working to draft a master set of emergency response plans past year, and expects it to be done in January or February.

Such a plan is more of a guideline to determine who is in charge of what during specific emergencies, how agencies should cooperate and procedures for rapid deployments.

Within that framework, emergency leaders would then tackle the specifics of the emergency at hand.

Once that plan is in place, local emergency departments will have to rehearse some to work out the kinks, Peck said.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com