CAMAS — Camas-Washougal Fire Chief Cliff Free has spent the past several months trying to help east Clark County residents understand what is at stake if Proposition 1, a measure asking voters to approve a new regional fire authority, fails to win voters’ approval in the April 22 special election. If the proposition passes, the joint department would continue to provide fire services in a 20-square-mile area within the boundaries of Camas and Washougal and emergency medical services within a 90-square-mile area surrounding both cities’ borders. If it fails, the Camas-Washougal Fire Department would break apart, with each city running its own fire department after 2026. “I don’t think people are prepared,” Free said. “And I think it’s hard for new residents to imagine the level of services we had before.”

Camas Communications Director Bryan Rachal said he and other city staff have been trying to fight misinformation surrounding the regional fire authority measure by hosting information sessions. “It’s a cut-and-dry issue,” Rachal said. “We want to retain the services people know and love. If we have to dismantle (the joint fire department) … first-responder service will suffer.” Clark County will mail ballots for the April 22 special election on April 4. The final informational session is 7-8 p.m. April 8 at the Port of Camas-Washougal headquarters, 24 S. A St., Washougal. Costs and benefits An interlocal agreement officially merged the Camas and Washougal fire departments in 2014 and created the Camas-Washougal Fire Department.

Over the past few years, as Camas officials have responded to the community’s calls for a higher level of staffing at the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, inequities between what each city can afford to pay have threatened to dismantle the interlocal agreement. “The funding allocation between the two cities is complicated and has shifted over time, creating disparities between the two cities,” Free said. “Each city has its own priorities, budgets, budget challenges and pressures within that budget. And each has a seven-person, elected council. In order to make a change, we have to get both cities on board.” According to the fire chief, forming a regional fire authority would solve these challenges, as the fire authority would be “a stand-alone agency” funded by a flat levy rate and governed by an elected board of commissioners representing an equal number of residents in Camas and Washougal districts. “Everybody pays the same effective rate,” Free said. “It gives us something we can use to do long-term planning, which is very difficult to do right now with the combined department having to deal with both the city of Camas and the city of Washougal.”

The joint fire authority would be able to run three-person engine companies — something east Clark County fire officials have been advocating for since a 2018 Valentine’s Day house fire rescue resulted in a state fine against the city of Camas for conducting the rescue with just two firefighters on the scene. “We are the only fire service in Clark County that runs two people on an engine,” Free said. “If that engine arrives at a structure fire and there is a known rescue, we are (prohibited) from engaging in that rescue unless we have three people suited up.” To begin running three-person engine companies in 2027, Free will need to hire 12 firefighters at a cost of about $160,000 each. Free said he would phase in the new firefighters to help keep the regional fire authority’s costs as low as possible. If the ballot measure passes, Camas and Washougal taxpayers would pay a flat rate of $1.05 per $1,000 of assessed property value for fire and EMS services.

Each city would then lower the amount of taxes it currently collects for fire and EMS services. The city of Camas would reduce its property tax by 60 cents and Washougal would reduce its property tax by 81 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The reductions would mean Camas taxpayers would pay an additional 45 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for the regional fire authority, around $19 a month for the owner of a $500,000 home. Washougal residents would pay an additional 24 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or about $10 a month for the owner of a $500,000 home. Residents living inside the regional fire authority’s boundaries would receive free ambulance transport services instead of paying insurance co-pays that can be as high as the $1,021 the Camas-Washougal Fire Department currently charges for basic and advanced ambulance services. Free said the $1.05 levy rate would be the lowest fire rate in Clark County and provide taxpayers with a greater level of control.

“We cannot raise those taxes beyond the 1 percent (allowed by the state) without a vote of the people,” Free said. “If we want to increase staffing, we have to go to the people and say, ‘This is what we’d like to do. This is the amount of money it’s going to cost us.’ If they say, ‘No,’ we stay at the same rate.” ‘No part of it is positive’ If voters reject Proposition 1, the joint fire department would split apart after Dec. 31, 2026. Free said the proposed regional fire authority “is the antidote” to the issues Camas and Washougal officials have had with the interlocal agreement that joined the two fire departments more than a decade ago. “We both depend on each other. If we become two smaller entities, we will have less equipment, fewer economies of scale,” Free said.

In that case, each city would take on the additional costs of running its own fire department, and Washougal would still rely on the Camas fire department to provide mutual aid and ambulance transport services. “We are stronger together,” Free said. “We are better together.”