Tumwater City Council is looking to extend the city’s partnership with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to provide each other with mutual assistance in controlling forest fires.
The agreement allows the city to assist in firefighting in DNR-protected lands within the city, while in return, DNR will support the city with any forest fires in the city.
The current agreement was established in 2019 and will expire in March this year. The proposed contract extension would continue through the end of 2025.
Assistant Fire Chief Shawn Crimmins told the council that DNR and the Fire Chief's Association are working on an updated agreement, but it will not be ready until around 2025. The extension of the city’s current contract will allow time for the new agreement to take shape.
Crimmins spoke positively about the agreement, saying that it is a big assist to the city’s fire department.
“It allows [DNR’s] overhead to come in… As all of you are aware, we only have two fire engines within the city, so [it] allows our crews to actually get back in service and respond to the needs of the city,” Crimmins said.
The agreement will be included in the consent agenda of this week's city council meeting.
The council also discussed the fourth edition of the county’s Hazards Mitigation Plan. The city adopted the current edition of the plan in 2017. Still, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires it to be updated and re-approved every five years so the city can retain its eligibility for federal mitigation grant programs.
The document contains individual plans for each jurisdiction in the county. Tumwater’s annex to the plan details 20 initiatives specific to the city to address hazards such as wildfire, flood, earthquake, severe weather, landslide, and lahar.
The plan will be returned to the council in this week’s meeting so the council can consider it for approval.
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