Fire chief urges regional view of response times and warns losses if cities leave service pact

Derek Menard, fire chief for the Gresham-area fire service, told the Fairview City Council on June 4 that call volumes and unit deployments show the system must be managed as a seven-station network and that reductions in participation by neighboring cities could leave gaps in coverage.

Menard said the combined response area had 17,518 calls in 2024 and about 22,000 unit responses, and that Fairview itself saw 1,077 responses in 2024 with roughly 639 of those EMS/rescue calls. He said planners use NFPA 1710 standards, a standard-of-cover produced by Fitch & Associates in 2021–22, and time-tested NIST task studies to set response targets such as arrival of an initial unit in under four minutes and a full initial alarm within eight minutes.

“ We are understaffed. We are thin. We are as lean as we could be for the amount of call volume that we have,” Chief Derek Menard said, summarizing the department’s staffing posture and the rationale for seeking additional, sustainable funding.

Why it matters: Menard framed station placement, reliability and mutual aid…