The Guemes Island Fire Department (GIFD) is pleased to announce that Adam Veal and Dave Margeson have joined the Department as firefighters and are presently attending recruit training. Adam Veal is the fourth of his family and a third generation firefighter to serve with GIFD. His grandfather was a principle in the formation of the department, father Glen Veal served 19 years with GIFD and his uncle, Arn Veal, retired after 20 years service with GIFD.What a marvelous record of family public service.

Dave Margeson a visitor to Guemes Island on and off since1949, became a property owner in 1974 and a full time resident one year ago. He was a member of a forest fire suppression crew while attending college and had a career in the forest products industry and as an environmental consultant prior to his retirement one year ago.

County Responds to Fire Department

"If Skagit County has no duty to even provide routine ferry service to Guemes Island (at all), it would logically follow that Skagit County has no duty to provide special or exceptional emergency response ferry services." [12.14.6]

Fire Department Warns County

Attorney Brian Shure sent a letter on behalf of the Guemes Island Fire Department, informing the County "of the untenable situation existing with the ferry Guemes emergency response times outside of normal operating hours and during times of ferry and/or ferry dock repairs...The people of Guemes Island should be able to rely on a ferry and crew responding to an emergency situation in a timely manner at all times barring a disaster or extremes in weather. This is not the case with the system as it now exists."

Read full letter 76kb PDF [11.19.6]

Know Your Fire Commissioners

A rather belated welcome to Commissioner Jack Fees who was elected at the last General Election in November 2005. Jack has had a “home under construction on Guemes for the last twenty years”, and has lived full time on Guemes for the last 5 years. Jack has no history of being involved in anything to do with fire fighting, but he felt that at this time in his life he wanted to do some payback to the community. Jack was a construction foreman for the Snohomish County Public Utilities District for 33 years and also served 22 years on the Board of Directors of the Snohomish County PUD Credit Union.

New Pumper

In case you haven’t noticed the new GIFD fire pumper, the purchase of which was enabled by the overwhelming support of island taxpayers for a Fire Levy increase in the 2 Nov 04 General Election, is now in full service.

Among its many features, this pumper has foam capabilities which allows the 1000 gallons of water it delivers to a fire to be much more effective in knocking down fires. It is anticipated that this brand new rig will be more reliable and reduce maintenance costs compared with the 23 year old pumper it replaced.

Safety Note

Be aware that if your landline telephone only has a wireless handset dependent on a battery, you will not be able to use that phone to make an emergency 911 call or any other calls for that matter should the electric power be interrupted in your location. To be assured of being able to contact 911 in an emergency during an electrical outage, you should purchase and install a simple, non battery dependent telephone set in some area of your home.

Thinking of giving back to the Guemes Community?

Join the Volunteer Fire Department!

The Guemes Island Fire Department is all about helping neighbors during medical and fire emergencies. Few things in life are more rewarding.

The Department needs Guemes residents to train as firefighters and EMTs (no previous experience needed). Non-firefighter/EMT volunteers are also needed for a variety of office and handyman projects, and for helping out during the 4th of July garage sale.

For more information contact Chief Meinzinger at 293-3634, Jim Dugan at 293-8156 or any firefighter.