The Park City Fire District will take over services in North Summit for two months after Summit County accused volunteer firefighters in the North Summit Fire District of “boycotting” shifts and refusing to answer calls for service.
Summit County Manager Tom Fisher said in an interview that problems have been persistent in the North Summit Fire District since the “for cause” firing of the previous chief in November. But things came to a head last week, Fisher said, when a firefighter refused to dispatch for a hunting accident in Echo Canyon that left a 58-year-old woman dead.
“With the emergency service ethic, and usually the people within those organizations are very passionate about their community service, about what they do, and their primary purpose being to respond, we were always hoping that ethic would be how folks within the district would handle themselves” Fisher said. “And that didn’t work.”
The Administrative Control Board of the North Summit Fire District met Monday night and voted to pay $168,000 to the Park City Fire District for fire services for the next 60 days. Chair Michelle Anderson did not immediately return The Park Record’s request for comment.
During Monday’s meeting, officials highlighted that the Park City firefighters do not wish to provide coverage for any longer than 60 days. Fisher said one of the discussion points during a closed session portion of the meeting was to begin discussing the process for reviewing applicants for the vacant fire chief position.
The Administrative Control Board initially held a special meeting on Friday with the Summit County Council chair and co-chair, the mayors of Coalville and Henefer as well as other county staffers who made the recommendation to set up an interlocal agreement with the Park City Fire District to temporarily take over duties in North Summit.
Monica LeCates, who served as North Summit firefighter from 2017 to 2020, told The Park Record that many firefighters learned of their suspension from news reports rather than the Administrative Control Board.
The decision was made following an investigation throughout the week, Fisher said, and will ensure fire services remain available to citizens at all times. The Park City Fire District began responding to calls in North Summit immediately after Fisher was made aware of what he characterized as insubordination.
According to Fisher, a firefighter and officer with the North Summit Fire District did not dispatch to assist medical personnel following an accidental shooting on Jan. 31 despite direct requests from dispatchers and the deputy fire chief. The refusal to respond to a critical call violates the Fire District’s policies and practices, Fisher said.
LeCates said that North Summit Fire District volunteers often have limited access to ambulances for their coverage area of 500 square miles — which could leave patients in critical situations for up to 30 minutes. Firefighters have attempted to bring this issue up numerous times but have been shot down, according to LeCates.
“Since the fire department was left without a chief, they wanted to find a guilty person, pointing the finger to the North Summit firefighter. They accused him of refusing orders,” LeCates said in a statement shared with The Park Record. “This firefighter feels threatened like other firefighters in the past, when Park City Fire District employees would go after their licenses (like nursing) for their full time jobs.”
Some firefighters with the North Summit Fire District hold an emergency medical responder designation, which is a state license, that gives them the ability to support emergency medical service personnel on calls. Often, firefighters and medical responders work together on calls to provide support, and Fisher estimates that the majority of cases firefighters are summoned to are medical in nature — not fire.
Unlike the North Summit Fire District, the Park City Fire District is composed of full-time firefighters who are trained as paramedics in addition to full-time emergency medical service personnel.
The Park City Fire District administration, which manages ambulances countywide, did pull one ambulance on Jan. 31 from the North Summit area to Park City. Fisher said when this happens, another ambulance will move closer to the North Summit area in case there’s another call.
When 911 dispatchers contacted the North Summit Fire District to assist with the shooting in Echo Canyon, no one responded, Fisher said.
Fisher said he met with the deputy chief, the county attorney and members of the Administrative Control Board the next day. The deputy chief told them that the firefighters were no longer listening to him, according to Fisher. The deputy chief, believing he was no longer an effective leader, decided to step down.
In the days that followed, county officials said they became aware of an “organized effort” from firefighters to not sign up for shifts, which left North Summit — including Coalville, Henefer and other areas spanning to the Wyoming border — without reliable coverage. The North Summit Fire District has a roster of anywhere from 25 to 30 people, but eight of them keep current credentials and pull the bulk of the shifts.
“We have a very small pool of people that we’re relying on to provide fire service on a regular basis to the district,” Fisher said.
Fisher doesn’t believe residents living in North Summit will incur longer response times in the coming weeks as firefighters with the Park City Fire District will be onsite at the Coalville station. The Park City Fire District will also have access to the fire stations in Henefer and Wanship.
All of the North Summit Fire District volunteers will be on hold from serving the community until the county can determine how to move forward. County officials estimated that the Park City Fire District will be able to take over duties for 60 days. They’ll continue to reassess the situation during that time to ensure services aren’t degraded.
Fisher said he recognizes the frustration of the community when it comes to unanswered questions such as the circumstances that led to the former chief’s firing — which won’t be disclosed to the public as it is a personnel issue.
Fisher said the county hopes to offer opportunities for public input to determine what services will look like in the future as officials move through this transitional period.