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Richland Fire Department presents 2024 annual report; highlights growth, call volumes and resource navigator
Summary
Fire Chief Huntington briefed the Richland City Council on the department’s 2024 annual report, reporting a $22 million operating budget, the opening of Station 76 at Badger Mountain South, about 9,700 calls (70% EMS), and several community programs including Heart Safe Richland and a resource navigator position.
Fire Chief Huntington presented the Richland Fire Department’s 2024 annual report on March 4, summarizing staffing, operations, program highlights and near-term projects.
Huntington said the 2024 operating budget was just over $22,000,000 to operate five stations and a sixth station (Station 76) that opened in Badger Mountain South in September 2024. He reported about 9,700 total calls for service in 2024—approximately 70% of calls were emergency medical services (EMS), roughly 27% were low-acuity calls, and about 3% were working fires.
The chief highlighted accomplishments including the opening of Station 76, the Heart Safe Richland initiative (which trained 55,000 people regionally on hands-only CPR since 2019), 25 Heart Safe campuses in the region (seven added in 2024), and a total of seven community-access AEDs installed in the city. Huntington also noted the department achieved the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline gold recognition and made the heart-attack honor roll. The department participated in regional efforts such as a coordinated food-truck inspection program and the Tri-Cities Regional Recruit Academy.
Huntington discussed wildfire preparedness and the community wildfire protection program, saying the region remains vulnerable to large wildfires and that mitigation, defensible-space efforts and building construction standards in the urban interface are key tools. He also said Benton County Emergency Services will update the county all-hazard mitigation plan in 2025 and the city will leverage that update to revise its emergency and disaster response plans.
The chief said the aging regional fire radio system is scheduled to be replaced, with construction starting this year and an expected activation in late 2026 or early 2027. He also noted the department onboarded a full-time resource navigator late in 2024; Huntington described several cases in which the navigator connected people with substance-use or mental-health needs to services and reduced repeat EMS use.
Council discussion covered support for the resource navigator, questions about wildfire planning and interagency resources (including Department of Natural Resources aircraft standby programs), and how metrics will be refined as the department updates its standards of cover. Huntington said the department will set new performance standards later in 2025 and provide more robust metrics in the 2025 annual report.
No council action or funding decision was taken on the presentation.
