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Fire Station 9 Starts its Engine Again in Spokane

As of Tuesday, firefighting response will improve on Spokane’s South Hill. The city of Spokane has restored firefighting capabilities out of station nine, near Manito Park. In early 2013, the city cut off firefighting efforts at station nine by replacing the station’s engine company with a rescue truck. City leaders blamed budget shortfalls for the change.

But this year, the mayor’s office and city council approved funding to add a firefighter to the station, and in doing so, the station has reached the minimum staff size to respond to fires again. Mayor David Condon says new firefighters start Tuesday.

Condon: “The fire task team, which has spent the last several months and last year studying how we can provide fire and emergency medical service, continues its work. And this was one of the recommendations from the task force team.”
 
Condon says demand for fire department help has shifted. 85-percent of the calls are medical related, such as automobile wrecks. He says the number of life threatening medical calls is up about 2 percent since last year.
 
Fire Station nine is on Bernard Street and 18th Avenue in Spokane. It now has a fire engine and smaller vehicles for non-fire emergencies.
 
Copyright 2014 Spokane Public Radio

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