South Pend Oreille Fire Chief, Brad Martin, wants to thank the public for attending our Community Meetings to discuss the reasons for a Levy Lid lift on the August 1 Ballot Chief Martin wants to remind the public that Pend Oreille Paramedics (POEMS) has announced their closure on December 31 of this year. POEMS is the primary advanced life support (ALS) ambulance service in the county. With their closure, the responsibility of providing that service will fall onto the Fire District. South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue is primarily a volunteer Fire Department with only 2 paid career firefighters. The district encompasses approximately 240 square miles and handles just under 1,000 calls for service, with approximately 70% of those calls being for EMS service.
For July 67% of all SPOFR calls were for Emergency Medical Services and According to Eric Gallanger ,”POEMS has already completed 757 calls for the year and 136 calls for June with 68 calls so far for July.” In order to provide the public with a seamless transition of EMS services SPOFR is committed to serving our community with pride. In addition, POEMS has had some short staffing issues recently and continues to work with SPOFR for the best EMS service possible at this time.
Public Information Officer
SPOFR
