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Fire chief warns of staffing, access and ALS transport limits for Crystal Mountain area
Summary
Paul Sowers, chief for Pierce County Fire Districts 25 and 26, told the council that mountain fire districts rely on a mix of paid and volunteer staff, have limited apparatus and face potential wildland risk this summer; he also flagged advanced life support (ALS) transport logistics when ski patrol provides medic-level care.
Paul Sowers, fire chief for Pierce County Fire Districts 25 and 26, told the Pierce County Council on April 28 that the mountainous districts that serve Crystal Mountain and Greenwater face staffing, water‑supply and transport challenges distinct from urban departments.
Sowers, who said he started in the area in 1996 and joined the Tacoma Fire Department in 1988, described a small full‑time and volunteer staffing model. He told the council the combined districts maintain roughly 20 full‑time residents who live and volunteer locally and operate three fire stations, multiple engines, tenders, wildland apparatus and tracked vehicles to reach remote areas.
“As the weather has changed here in the spring, it’s been a little dry and the snowpack is going away fast,” Sowers said. He told the council he planned to keep two wildland engines in service for the summer season because federal resources may be constrained. “Our goal is always to keep small fires small, and then hand it off to the appropriate agency,” he said.
Sowers also described the operational relationship between ski patrol and the county’s EMS system. He said some ski‑patrol teams at Crystal Mountain include medics and doctors who provide advanced life support (ALS) care on the slope; under Pierce County EMS protocols, once a paramedic establishes an ALS level of care a paramedic must remain with that patient through hospital transport. Sowers said ALS transport capacity in east Pierce County is limited and that arranging matching ALS transports from remote mountain locations can be logistically difficult. When conditions permit, he said air medical evacuation is often used for serious cases.
Why it matters: The equipment and staffing limits Sowers described affect response times and mutual‑aid planning for council districts that include resort and remote residential communities.
Sowers credited cooperative training and mutual support from nearby departments, and said the district benefits from recruits and training programs in Buckley and other partners. He said ski patrol on the mountain is “very high functioning” but that the patrol’s higher medical capability sometimes creates transport and resource challenges for EMS systems that must maintain a matching level of care to hospital arrival.
No formal county action was taken at the meeting; council members asked follow‑up questions about the EMS protocol and logistics and thanked first‑responder staff for their service.
