Washoe County, Reno and Sparks direct staff to study regional fire options; chiefs urge shared dispatch and unrestricted automatic aid

City and county officials voted unanimously at a special concurrent meeting to direct local managers and fire leadership to gather additional information and cost estimates for “enhanced regional fire options,” a set of possible changes that officials and fire chiefs said could reduce response times and increase resilience.

The motion, adopted separately by the Truckee Meadows Fire District Board, the Washoe County Commission and the city councils of Reno and Sparks, instructs staff to work together with the region’s fire chiefs and other stakeholders to assess needs, costs and potential governance models for greater regional collaboration. The motions passed with unanimous voice votes in each body.

Interim Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District Chief Dale Way outlined the operational case for removing response boundaries, saying unrestricted automatic aid — where the closest unit responds regardless of jurisdiction — reduces travel time, improves medical and fire outcomes and reduces risk to responders. Way cited three early successes after recent auto‑aid expansion with Reno: a November pediatric cardiac arrest that responders said ended in full recovery, a structure fire confined quickly by coordinated crews, and a motor‑vehicle extrication where units from different agencies worked in tandem.

“We should be what we can be,” Reno Fire Chief Dave Cochran said, urging a continuing regional push. Cochran highlighted a shared computer‑aided dispatch (CAD) project that regional staff said is on track to go live around September or October and said a single dispatch and common policies could eliminate redundancies and let the closest, most appropriate resource be sent immediately.

Sparks Fire Chief Walt White described existing regional work — shared hazmat teams, a recent unified command response to the Sullivan fire, and Sparks’ public‑private ambulance partnership — and said pooled resources enable capabilities none of the agencies could sustain alone.

Elected officials and public commenters pressed for quicker action and clearer timelines, and raised operational constraints: public commenters and elected officials described traffic bottlenecks during evacuations and noted limited state law‑enforcement resources for traffic control. Commissioner Mike Clark suggested better use of trained volunteers to manage intersections during evacuations. REMSA, the regional ambulance provider, told the boards it has operated as a regionalized EMS provider for decades and supports cooperative models that dispatch the closest appropriate resource.

The motions stopped short of committing to a particular governance model or funding mechanism. Several elected members said they want immediate administrative steps — such as continuing and expanding enhanced automatic aid where technically feasible — while staff and managers study longer‑term options including possible consolidation, interlocal agreements or joint powers arrangements. A number of speakers also urged an independent feasibility study to ground financial and governance decisions.

Each jurisdiction asked managers to report back; Sparks’ city manager suggested an initial coalesced briefing for elected leaders and staff roughly 30 days after the meeting to identify low‑cost or near‑term actions and the requirements for any longer‑term structural options. The boards did not vote on specific legislation but several officials signaled interest in pursuing a legislative solution if required to enable regional governance.