Two rural fire chiefs step down

Two rural fire chiefs whose volunteer departments have had contentious relationships with the Kalispell Fire Department over mutual-aid issues have stepped down.

Smith Valley Fire Chief Doug Scarff resigned last week and will be replaced by Jill Cheman.

Longtime West Valley Fire Chief Rod Dresbach will work until midnight on Feb. 19 and then leaves two days later to take a fire chief job in Eastern Montana.

Dresbach said his resignation is not related to any ongoing firefighting feuds between departments. He has accepted the fire chief position because he was looking for a job with more stability.

Dresbach has been with the West Valley Fire Department for 22 1/2 years, the last 15 years as fire chief. He has worked in construction in the Flathead Valley for 25 years and said the recession-driven downturn in building prompted him to look for a job out of the area.

West Valley Assistant Fire Chief Chris Mullenix will act as interim chief until a new chief is appointed by the board of trustees later this month. West Valley firefighters Russ Sappington and Kurt Carda, along with Mullenix, are candidates for the chief position.

Meanwhile, Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher says the city of Kalispell has been working to rebuild relationships with rural fire departments over the past year. She wrote a letter (published on today’s Opinion page) that outlines the Kalispell Fire Department’s efforts to mend the relationship between the city and rural fire departments.

The breakdown in mutual aid came to a head following the Jan. 12 fire at a home on Liberty Street in Kalispell that killed an elderly couple.

The Kalispell Fire Department called for assistance from several outlying fire departments as far away as Columbia Falls and Bigfork, but Smith Valley and West Valley — two of the closest rural forces — were not called, even though they both had signed mutual-aid agreements last year.

Friction between the city and rural departments has been an ongoing problem, though. Last year West Valley didn’t call Kalispell for help in fighting a January house fire in Stillwater Estates, close to Kalispell’s Fire Station 62.

Stillwater Estates lies just north of Kalispell along West Reserve Drive, one minute’s response time away from the staffed Kalispell fire station on Reserve Loop. But the subdivision is in the West Valley Fire District, which has a fire hall 3 miles to the west.

At the time, fire chiefs cited the lack of a mutual aid agreement and said fire calls were dispatched on separate channels for rural districts and the Kalispell municipal district.

Since then the dispatch glitch has been solved by the new consolidated 911 dispatch center.

Dresbach said he and Fisher set up two meetings last summer during which mutual aid agreements were signed. One of the things the rural departments wanted was for Kalispell to supply a water tender because rural departments serve areas without hydrants.

Fisher said a water tender, which will be delivered this spring, also was a necessary purchase for the city as it annexed subdivisions that haven’t installed hydrants.

“Both parties agreed that once the tender was purchased and available for use, we would work together to establish new ‘run cards’ that would include a place for Kalispell on West Valley’s run card, and West Valley on Kalispell’s run card,” Fisher said.

“Run cards” tell the 911 center which departments to dispatch and the order in which the dispatch should occur.

Dresbach said he didn’t want to dredge up the past contentiousness, but added he hopes “there’s an open line of communication” from here on out.

Neither Scarff nor Cheman could be reached for comment.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.