West Pierce Fire & Rescue Celebrates 10th Anniversary
On March 1st, West Pierce Fire & Rescue proudly celebrated its 10th anniversary. The fire district was created by the merger of the Lakewood and University Place Fire Departments in 2011, which provides service to those cities and contracted emergency services to the Town of Steilacoom.
In that time, firefighters have responded to more than 150,000 calls for service, which include a variety of incidents. Some major incidents included:
- Freight train derailment at Chambers Bay (2011)
- Narrows Marina fire during the US Open (2015)
- Amtrak passenger train derailment near Chambers Bay (2017)
- Amtrak passenger train derailment near DuPont (2017)
- Ketron Island plane crash and brush fire (2018)
- The rescue of Pepsi the Labrador (2019)
- The navigation of a global pandemic (2020-present)
WPFR has also given countless engine and station tours, built a reflection park with a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, taught safety lessons to nearly 60,000 elementary school students, installed approximately 15,000 smoke alarms in homes, provided EMS services during the US Open at Chambers Bay, trained more than 750 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members, picked thousands of pumpkins for Fall Safety Day, and served more hot dogs during our Open House event than can be counted.
Over the past decade, WPFR has also had the opportunity to make great strides internally with milestones such as: commissioning Fireboat Endeavor (a regional asset that protects South Puget Sound), completing its first strategic plan, implementing the Equity and Empowerment Initiative and launching the first Youth Academy for teens interested in the fire service as a career.
All personnel at WPFR are proud to serve and appreciate the community’s continued support.