FIRST RESPONDER FOCUS: Hartline firefighter and EMT covers a lot of ground

HARTLINE — Grant County Fire District 6 covers 232 square miles of Northeastern Grant County with a population of a little over 2,200. That means resources can get stretched a little thin, said Charles Erickson, a fifth-generation farmer in the Hartline area.

“For the most part, we’re all farmers out here, and a lot of times, I can be 12 miles north and two miles away from my pickup, and when the call comes out, it’s going to take me 10, 15 minutes to get back to my pickup and then another 10, 15 minutes to get into town,” Erickson said.

Erickson – he’s equally at home being called “Charlie” or “Chuck” – is a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician who also serves on the fire commission for GCFD 6. That makes him both Fire Chief Daryl Dormaier’s subordinate and one of his three bosses, which Dormaier is just fine with.

“I’ve known this guy all his life,” Dormaier said. “And we were looking for a new commissioner, because one of ours was wanting to retire, and and me being the fire chief, I thought, well, who can I get along with and take orders from? And he crossed my mind.”

Erickson came into the world of volunteer firefighting early, he said. His father was a volunteer, and Erickson joined a junior firefighter program when he was 16.

“They allowed you at 16 to join the department,” Erickson said. “You weren’t able to drive any of the trucks, but you could assist on fire calls. You could observe if you wanted to, you could grab a shovel and put out a fire if you wanted, or you could run a hose if you had the training. It was a neat program.”

Erickson expanded his range into the EMT side of the district about three years ago, he said, because there was a serious need in the community.

“There was only one, maybe two, EMTs in the area, and they were running ragged,” he said.

He and his wife, Timi, both took the EMT training at the same time, and it’s a good thing they did, he said.

“This has been the weird thing,” he said. “We’re a small district, so typically (we get) maybe 12 ambulance calls a year. This year we’re at well over 100.”

“If we saw 40 calls a year (in the past) we thought, ‘Oh, my God, we’re working too hard.’” Dormaier said.

The reason, Erickson explained, is that District 6 has been helping out Coulee City, whose municipal fire department is frequently understaffed. Coulee City, Hartline and Almira all function as a kind of unit, Erickson said, not least because the same high school serves all three communities.

The District 6 station is in downtown Hartline, but the district has taken to keeping some apparatus down south near Wilson Creek and a truck is being built now that will be kept at Erickson’s house about 10 miles north of town, he said. Even with that, the distances between residences and towns means the EMTs have to have a lot of independence.

“If there is an emergency, we have to be vigilant in deciding whether that person needs a higher level of care very quickly,” he said. “So, we use the helicopter system a lot out here. There’s one stationed right outside of Moses Lake that we use all the time. If the helicopter on Stratford Road is there with the crew, fueled up and ready to go, it can be here in under 20 minutes. If there is a critical emergency, we’re driving to the nearest hospital, which is Grand Coulee, 25-30 minutes away. (But) if we know that that patient needs a higher level of care and they are critically sick, they can be at a major hospital within 35 to 40 minutes. We have to make (that decision) on the spot, sometimes even before we see the patient, just to try and get the ball rolling.”

Fortunately, the team is now up to five people, he said, which means the Ericksons get more time at home. Timi and Chuck have two teenagers, one 18-month-old and a baby due in December. Running a farm, raising a family and saving lives can be a lot to juggle, Timi said.

“At the time when we signed up for this, it was kind of, you know, we could go on stuff together,” Timi said. We’d swap off. We were managing pretty well. (The teenagers) are pretty self-sufficient, they’re gone all day. But then we had (18-month-old Hudson) and now one on the way, so it’s a little tricky. We trade off where we can and if he happens to be home with the little guy, I’ll go.”

Chuck Erickson has a full plate, Dormaier said, but that doesn’t stop him taking on more when he sees a need. Besides the farm, fire and EMT, he also works part-time for Colville Tribes Emergency Services in Nespelem and serves on the board of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers.

“He’s always really trying to dedicate (himself) and be a strong advocate for whatever we’ve got going on at the fire department,” Dormaier said. “He understands that we’re up here in very rural Grant County and it’s tough for us to get a crew together, but if he’s not with doing something with the tribe, he gets in his rig, he hauls ass to the fire station, he gets in the ambulance, and he does what he can to … provide a service for his community.”

    The Grant County Fire District 6 firehouse, where Charles Erickson is stationed, is the same building that formerly housed Hartline’s municipal fire department, as the sign suggests.