Fire departments plan to tie the knot

The merging of fire departments that share the same general area has been compared to a love affair.

Make all the comparisons you want, but Wood River Fire and Rescue, Hailey and Bellevue fire departments seem to want to go all the way.

"Right now, we’re just asking for permission to go out, said Wood River Fire Chief Bart Lassman on Monday.

Eventually that decision may be up to the voting public of Blaine County, but for now, consolidation talk is still in the innocent stages of attraction.

Last week, the three departments held two information sessions--one for the public and one for themselves--about the realities of bringing the assets and personnel of separate fire departments together.

Done in the interest of being more efficient, saving taxpayer dollars and lowering insurance ratings, an outside consultant said departments in courtship have to overcome any troubled pasts and bring all the ugly details about themselves to the table for the affair to work.

Guest speaker Jim Snook is a former fire chief from the Beaverton, Ore., area who is now a consultant on fire department and district consolidation.

Snook, who has worked on consolidations in more than 50 communities, pointed out the problem that seems obvious to anyone who has driven down the south end of Third Avenue in Hailey.

The Wood River and Hailey fire departments are so redundant they have firehouses within feet of each other.

"That’s the first time I’ve seen that," Snook said.

While Wood River, Hailey and Bellevue are contemplating joining forces, Carey, Sun Valley and Ketchum are sitting this one out.

Carey Fire District Commissioner Larry Schoen, who was not at the meeting, said afterwards, "It’s probably not time for us just yet."

At the meeting, Ketchum Fire Chief Tom Johnson was asked why Ketchum and Sun Valley were not involved.

"At this time … it would not benefit our rate payers," Johnson said.

For some in the room, the Tuesday night session ended on an ironic note.

Two hours into the meeting, a report of a house aflame in Hidden Hollow came in over the firefighters’ pagers.

Participants dashed out of the meeting in the old county courthouse in Hailey, and raced up the road to where the alleged fire was underway.

But, as the Ketchum firefighters who arrived from the north found out, it was a false alarm.

The blaze was not a structure fire at all, just a man burning weeds.