GCFD 3 celebrates oak anniversary

QUINCY — The plaque outside the Grant County Fire District 3 hall lists names of longtime district firefighters, and in the process makes a point about the fire service. Sometimes it’s something that families do for generations.

Jake Hardt’s father and brothers volunteered with GCFD 3, and so did Jake, back in the day. Hardt works for the Washington Department of Natural Resources now, but he started fighting fires in his hometown of Quincy.

“I believe either you or (former assistant chief Jim) Stucky is on my firefighter certification. From 2001,” Hardt told current GCFD chief Tony Leibelt during a conversation at the district’s open house Oct. 11.

Liebelt too is a second-generation firefighter at GCFD 3. His dad was a volunteer with the district, he said.

The district is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2022. Volunteers make up a substantial portion of its personnel, LeIbelt said.

“For me, it’s a family affair,” Hardt said. “It was a way to volunteer and give back to the community.”

As Quincy has grown and changed, the district has too. Currently, GCFD 3 covers about 500 square miles, Leibelt said, and has a contract with the city of Quincy to provide fire services.

The district has eight fire stations, Leibelt said, two in the city of Quincy and others at George, Winchester, Adams Road, Frenchmen Hills, Sunland Estates and Trinidad.

“(The district employs) six firefighters, two administrative secretaries and one mechanic,” Leibelt said. “Volunteers right now - I’m going to say we’re right at the 70 mark.”

Another 10 to 12 recruits are undergoing training, he said. The district also has a resident program, where firefighters are not part of the paid staff, but live in resident housing at the station and receive a small stipend. It’s a way for aspiring firefighters to get experience.

“We are fire-based,” Leibelt said. “We also do EMS - basic life support level. What we don’t do is transport patients; that is left up to our public safety partner, Protection One (ambulance service).”

Like industry everywhere, Quincy’s industries present some unique challenges, with the fire department having to adapt to the chemicals used in food processing, to use one example. In addition, Quincy doesn’t have tall buildings, but it has buildings with a lot of square footage. That means special equipment, like a ladder truck, is helpful.

Emergency response means fighting fires, of course, but it goes well beyond that. Quincy is kind of a crossroads, with Interstate 90 running east and west, and state highways providing access to Wenatchee.

“We have 100 miles of state highways in our district - 20 of it is I-90,” Leibelt said. “We have at least 20 or 22 miles of rail, including the sharpest bend - at Horseshoe Bend here - between Everett and Chicago. They actually oil the wheels as it goes across that track.”

It doesn’t take a car for people to get into emergency situations where they need help.

“We have the Gorge Amphitheater as well, which brings some unique challenges,” Leibelt said.

“Along with water and river recreation on the Columbia.”

The district attracts rock climbers and hikers, and there are miles of irrigation canals that can and do cause problems for inattentive drivers, or people looking to go for a swim on a hot day.

“We do some cliff rescues down on Frenchman Coulee - we just had a significant one a couple weeks ago. We have all the irrigation canals and we’ve had some significant fatality incidents,” he said.

Leibelt estimated about 60 to 80% of the district’s calls for service are for non-fire-related emergencies, depending on the station.

“That’s kind of a trend, I think, nationally, far fewer structure fires, because of building code improvements and those kinds of things,” he said. “But at the same rate, those fires are burning hotter and faster inside the structures. So there’s still a certain amount of vulnerability.”

Hardt said he was first attracted to firefighting because he wanted to fight structure fires, a goal that was reinforced after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He got a job with DNR, fighting wildland fires.

“I flew to my first wildland fire in a helicopter, and forgot all about structures,” Hardt said.

Most of Fire District 3 is unimproved land, so wildland fires make up the majority of the district’s fire calls, Leibelt said.

“That’s a big part of our summer. We’re still in that mode,” he said.

Leibelt has been with GCFD 3 for 34 years, he said, and firefighting has changed a lot in that time.

“We keep everybody seated in the truck anymore,” he said. “We’re not riding on the front of the trucks, we’re not riding on the back of the trucks. We’re seat-belting, as a mandatory safety measure. Because firefighters, even yet today, across the country are dying in rollover accidents because they’re not seat-belted in. There’s a big national push to fix that.”

Fire departments also are more involved in promoting fire prevention, he said.

The fire service has changed, and departments have to change to keep up, he said.

“We’re continuously training, we’re continuously recruiting,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com. For additional coverage, visit our website at www.columbiabasinherald.com.