Bridging the language gap: Ephrata firefighter translates safety brochures into Ukrainian, Russian

Translation part of department's fire prevention work

EPHRATA - This winter, Viktor Medzyak will be inside Ephrata's fire station translating a fire safety brochure for Grant County's Ukrainians and Russians who appear somewhat undetected in population surveys.

But with Medzyak's help, the fire department is reaching out to non-English speakers and recently received its sixth award for fire safety education programs like the brochure.

Medzyak, 20, lives at the fire station as a resident firefighter. He moved from the Ukraine to the U.S. when he was 5.

He plans to have his parents help proofread his work once a draft is completed because they speak Ukrainian at home, he said.

His translation work is expected to be done before March and is part of the Ephrata Fire Department's efforts to provide fire prevention materials to area residents, said Jeremy Burns, Ephrata's fire chief.

The department has fire safety brochures in English and Spanish, but wants to expand its selection to include Russian and Ukrainian versions because of the need, he added. The department has a $3,000 annual fire prevention material fund to pay for the brochures, which may cost about $1,500.

"We're always looking at ways to be progressive," Burns said, adding the fire department wants to reach the outlying community around Ephrata where Russians are living.

Reaching non-English speaking groups is a challenge and many fire departments try to use their employees to help bridge the gap, said Roy Marshall, director of the Residential Fire Safety Institute, which presented the award to Ephrata.

It's unclear if the number of Russians and Ukrainians in Grant County are growing because statistics on both groups weren't available Thursday from the U.S. Census Bureau.

But area schools reflect a segment of the population that often gets merged into the "white" category in population surveys.

The Ephrata and Soap Lake school districts reported about 138 Russian and Ukrainian students attend schools in their respective towns.

There's about 113 students from the nationalities in Soap Lake schools and about 25 students in Ephrata, according to the school district.

Ephrata's total doesn't include numbers from Ephrata High School and Parkway Elementary because the information wasn't readily available.