WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell today demanded help for a new fire station to be built at Snoqualmie Pass that can support neighboring communities and address safety and security needs, while helping to preserve the environment. During an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on public lands, Cantwell urged the committee to pass her bill to help the Snoqualmie Pass Fire District build a new fire station on an acre and a half of Forest Service land near an I-90 on-ramp at the Pass.  For decades, the Fire District has operated out of an aging building that was not originally designed to be a fire station and is structurally inadequate to meet the growing emergency response needs at the Pass.

 

“Snoqualmie Pass is a critical economic and transportation corridor for Washington state,” said Cantwell. “The all-volunteer Fire Department averages more than 300 calls a year, which is triple the amount of calls a typical all-volunteer fire department would respond to in a year.   Eighty-four percent of those incidents are for non-tax paying residents.  Consequently, the Fire Department has the characteristics of a large city with the limited resources of a small community. For the safety of our communities, and to help protect these pristine areas in Washington, we must make this investment to build an adequate fire station. ”  

 

Cantwell introduced this legislation in early February as a companion to Congressmen Reichert (WA-08) and Hastings’ (WA-04) bill that transfers the Forest Service land to the Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue to build a new fire station. Helping the Fire District acquire more land and allowing it to invest its resources in building a new fire station rather than buying land will improve the safety and emergency response time at Snoqualmie Pass. The Snoqualmie Pass Fire Department serves a portion of King and Kittitas counties on both sides of the Cascade Mountains, a community of 350 full-time residents that peaks to 1,500 during the ski season.  Nearly 60,000 vehicles travel through the fire district during peak times, making it one of the busiest mountain highways in the country. 

 

In a letter to Cantwell, Mark Lawler, Chair of the National Forests Committee wrote, “We understand the need of the Snoqualmie Pass Fire District for a modern facility so that they can provide critical emergency services… The current facility, leased from the national forest, is 70 years old and inadequate to serve the area. Since learning of this proposal, our intent has been to support their efforts to build a new station at a location that provides response times set out in national standards. The Fire District has committed to using best practices during construction on the site, which should include containing and treating run-off and installing native species landscaping.” 

 

There are 24 dedicated volunteer fire fighters and Emergency Medical Technicians serving the Snoqualmie Pass Fire District. However, with traffic on the rise and the need for emergency services in the area growing, the Fire District needs to move to a true fire station. In recent years, this area has been the scene of major winter snowstorms, multi-vehicle accidents, and even avalanches. The Fire District is often the first responder to incidents in the area, which is prone to rock slides and avalanches and it is not uncommon for this community to be isolated for hours or even days at a time. 

 

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