Island County Fire District 3 is looking for a few good men and women. Fire district officials are conducting their annual drive for volunteers this month, and they are hoping to spark the interest of local residents to join their ranks.

Volunteer firefighters are not only your friends and neighbors, they are the backbone of Fire District 3.

“This district is supported by a dedicated volunteer system,” said Chief Dan Stout.

About 90 percent of the district’s fire fighters and emergency personnel are volunteers. Six part-time paid firefighters staff the station during the day when volunteers are not as readily available due to jobs, especially off island.

“This keeps the cost to taxpayers down,” Stout said.

Currently there are 80 volunteers serving South Whidbey. But district officials would like to have more people involved.

“Ideally we would like to have 100 volunteers,” Stout said.

“Volunteers join for a variety of reasons. But it comes down to serving the community and helping others,” he said.

Volunteers are reimbursed for their service — depending on how long they have been with the department — for each call they go out on. The range is $7.50 to $10.

The district itself is expansive, and volunteers are needed from across the South End. Fire District 3 provides coverage for Whidbey Island from a point just north of the intersection of Mutiny Bay Road and Highway 525, and includes 66 square miles and 54 miles of shoreline.

Stout said there is a need for more volunteers, because the number of calls has climbed from just a few in the first years of the district to more than 1,600 in 2005.

That’s more than double the calls in a decade; volunteers responded to 740 calls in 1996.

However, Stout said fire calls have dropped steadily over the years, partly as a result of better building codes. Residential sprinklers and alarm systems have also become common.

“The nature of our calls have changed, 70 to 80 percent are for emergency medical service,” Stout said.

Stout said it’s a nationwide trend.

“Fire districts around the country are reporting 65 to 70 percent of their calls are for emergency medical service. As more and more retirees move to the island, the trend will be toward an even larger medical call volume,” he said.

History of volunteerism

The district, formed in 1950, has long been staffed with volunteers. Even Marion Hunter, the first fire chief, was a volunteer, with district business being conducted from the Hunter home.

Since those early days, volunteers have answered those middle-of-the-night calls for help from area residents.

Whether it was a house or barn fire, car accident or medical emergency, volunteers were rousted from their homes often times by a phone tree or a bell at the energy station.

The first stations were built at Freeland, Clinton, Maxwelton, Bush Point and Saratoga, with Bayview being the last to be constructed. These original stations were built on land donated by the communities or area developers. Local lumber stores and businesses provided building materials. The firefighters themselves — with the help of friends and contractors — built the original stations.

The only area that had an organized fire service in 1950 was the City of Langley, where the department had been formed in 1913. While the Langley department often responded outside of the city limits, South End residents had to rely on one another for help in emergencies.

Firefighting evolves to emergency services

The district focused on firefighting for early years and while it was often called out for car wrecks, training was limited to basic first aid.

But after a multiple-fatality wreck on Highway 525, District 3 moved into the heavy rescue business.

In 1979, a group of firefighters — including Carl Simmons, Mark Green, Harold Moore and Paul Busch — traveled to Oak Harbor twice a week to train as emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, and the Rescue Squad was formed. This group responded to auto accidents, medical calls in conjunction with the Whidbey General Hospital ambulance service, as well as structure, brush and forest fires.

Busch, who is now the assistant chief for the district, said things at the district have changed for the better.

“We have moved forward with better and more equipment and better training opportunities for our volunteers,” he said.

The Rescue Squad has since evolved into the Medical Division, while all firefighters are now taught vehicle extrication skills including how to operate the “jaws of life.”

The extrication skills that started with the Rescue Squad have been expanded over time, as well. A team of six firefighters from the district now competes three times a year in Transportation Emergency Response Committee, or TERC, competitions throughout the nation and Canada.

This year the team qualified to go to the 2007 national competition in Orlando, Fla.

Busch said additional skills and training were needed in the mid-1980s, when the editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer drowned in an accident off Sandy Point. An inflatable boat was purchased and the Marine Rescue Division was born.

The group currently responds with a rigid inflatable boat, which can be launched from any of the ramps on the island. It gives rescue workers both flexibility and rapid response ability.

In addition, they use a personnel watercraft, which permits wide search patterns to be covered in short time.

Two more specialized teams have evolved as the district has grown; the hazardous materials, or HAZMAT, response team and a second team that responds to high-angle rescues.

“While neither of these types of emergencies are common on South Whidbey, the teams are important components of a full-service fire department,” Stout said.

Gayle Saran can reached at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com