SPOKANE, Wash – Every year Spokane Firefighters travel for training. This year they went to the Tri-Cities, but it wasn’t just the firefighters that attended.
So did Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown.
“It was intense,” Mayor Brown said.
Why would the mayor of a city train alongside firefighters?
“It’s difficult for an elected official to fully understand what our needs are,” Spokane Fire Capt. Eric Staggs said.
Capt. Staggs added there are an “abundance” of needs that the fire department has. Anything and everything from personal protective equipment, to more staff, to new gear.
“Our training facility should have been replaced a decade ago,” Capt. Staggs said.
A firetruck that sits in Spokane Fire Station 15 should have been placed on reserve long ago, according to Capt. Staggs. In fact, he said, there are several firetrucks across the Lilac City that should’ve been placed on reserve 15 to 20 years ago.
The question of how taking elected officials and other community leaders to these types of training helps alleviate some of these needs is clear to Capt. Staggs.
“How can we best accomplish our goals with the staffing that we have or find deficiencies? It’s not the easiest to do when we’re face-to-face in a room. It’s a lot easier to have those discussions when they’ve (elected officials) experienced being inside of a burning building,” Capt. Staggs said.
They trained on numerous scenarios, from house fires to car extrication.
“My adrenaline was rushing. My heart was beating. You really got a sense of how significant it is to do what your body would not normally do,” Mayor Brown said.
And, perhaps, a sense of what our firefighters need.
“It’s absolutely a top priority of mine that we make the right investments, to not only maintain what we’ve got, but I believe the public wants even better response times,” Mayor Brown said.
