The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Standing before the city council this month, Gery Gehrmann was clearly overcome with emotion.

“I’m one of those people that’s here today because of Rescue 3,” he said, pausing for a moment before finishing. “I ask you to support it.”

His son, Grant, explained that his father suffered a heart attack in his Vancouver Heights home a few years ago.

It was the quick response from the rescue unit — eliminated last month as part of citywide budget cuts — that saved his father’s life, he said.

Gehrmann’s story is just one of dozens, most of them heartfelt tales of life and death, that have flooded city hall and other public forums since the announcement that the medical response unit would be eliminated.

Sixty-six jobs and numerous service cuts accompanied the city’s closure of a $6 million budget gap, but the loss of Station 3’s medical response unit seems to have ignited the most impassioned outcry from residents.

However, Rescue 3 may have already flatlined. Still, citizens and firefighters are conducting a campaign to convince the city council to bring the four-man unit back.

The council did not make the decision to cut the unit. Vancouver Fire Chief Don Bivins, and ultimately City Manager Pat McDonnell, made the call, following a council-approved set of guidelines.

But firefighters’ union President Mark Johnston said something like a change in public safety service should be a policy decision by the city council.

“They’re the ones who are elected to make tough decisions,” he said. “That’s where the responsibility lies — with them.”

April 19 vote

Rescue 3’s supporters have until April 19 to make their case.

That’s when the city council votes on the amended budget; by then, supporters must convince at least four of its seven members that the medical unit deserves to be reinstated.

Bivins said “it’s purely speculation to determine whether Rescue 3 could be saved.”

Faced with the task of cutting $425,000 from his budget, Bivins said that losing Rescue 3 was the best of the bad options.

Station 3, at 1110 N. Devine Rd., was the only station that had double coverage for calls.

Retirements are under way for the four firefighting positions eliminated along with the unit, and Bivins said he does not want to hire more staff that he may have to lay off next year.

Restarting the unit using overtime hours would cost $438,000 for the next nine months.

“It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, to incur more costs than the cutbacks were intended to save,” Bivins said.

Johnston again put the onus on the council.

“I don’t think it’s an impractical amount if the city council decides its worth the service,” he said.

On March 1, Johnston submitted more than 350 signatures protesting the loss of the unit, and firefighters are continuing to collect signatures.

‘People will die’

The city council seems to have already moved on. Members say that while the cut was unfortunate, it was not a policy decision, and they’re focused on keeping public safety intact as future cuts loom.

In an e-mail written to the council, Vancouver native Michelle Yela called on them to find somewhere else to make the cuts and bring back Rescue 3.

“I don’t believe that the right choice has been made for my mom or the citizens of Vancouver,” wrote Yela, who now lives in Seattle, but whose parents live in Vancouver Heights. “People will die unnecessarily.”

In a response to Yela’s e-mail, Councilor Bart Hansen said that while the council was concerned about the loss, “we have an estimated $10 million to $12 million shortfall coming up. My current concern, along with the council, is keeping firefighters and police officers from enduring deeper cuts.”

Council members said it’s not their place to second-guess personnel decisions.

“Our job is not to get down to that level,” Councilor Jack Burkman said. “These are really tough times and I wish the city manager didn’t have to make those cuts, but the reality is he did.”

Councilor Pat Campbell replied to Yela that after two years in office, he’s convinced the city is doing the best it can with the money it has.

“Existing funds have been moved about as much as possible,” he wrote. “My personal opinion is that the voters need to weigh in on what they want. It is either going to be continued severe cuts or revenues to pay for what services citizens most want.”

Mayor Tim Leavitt said that the council would be willing to “consider alternatives that the firefighters’ union may have in trimming $400,000-plus out of their budget.”

The 185-member union is negotiating its contract with the city right now, and Leavitt said those cuts from fire’s budget could come “in bargaining, or something even sooner than that.”

Johnston declined to comment on bargaining, as he is not part of the negotiating team.

He did say, however, “we’re very cognizant of all the pieces that play into this big picture.”

Previous cuts

This isn’t the first time Vancouver Fire has cut medical rescue unit service to an area.

In fact, Rescue 3 outlived its companion vehicle, Rescue 9.

Rescue 9 was stationed at Fisher’s Landing until the new Pacific Park fire station opened this year. Rescue 9 was cut so that its four firefighters could staff the new station’s engine company, Engine 10, Bivins said.

Both Rescue 3 and Rescue 9 were created in 2003 to provide backup to the busy engine companies, he said.

In both Vancouver Heights and Fisher’s Landing, an engine remains to respond to medical emergencies.

“The exposure that we’re talking about is the second emergency that occurs in the Heights area, that’s where the vulnerability lies,” Bivins said. “The issue here is that particular station is more vulnerable than any of the other stations we have because of the call volume we experience.”

Response times on 28 percent of the estimated 3,803 calls this year to Station 3 will be an average of 3.5 minutes longer, Bivins has said.

Those delays will happen when Engine 3 is already out on another call, and an engine has to come from a neighboring area.

And any delay is not acceptable, Bunny Stevens told the council on March 1.

Her daughter, Shea, was 17 when she went into cardiac arrest during soccer practice. Her coaches performed CPR and paramedics from Station 3 were able to revive her.

The paramedics were from the second available unit at the station; the first was already at another call at the time, Stevens told the council.

Shea, who is now a sophomore at Gonzaga University in Spokane, would be dead without the fast response times necessary in such emergencies, she said.

“I would not be standing here before you tonight, the proud mother of two children — one of which was saved by our firefighters — without Rescue 3,” Stevens said. “Please don’t take the resources away from the fire district to save lives.”

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-452; andrea.damewood@columbian.com.

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