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Farmington Fire chief briefs Spring Heights council on readiness and early wildfire season
Summary
Farmington Fire Chief Shelby Willis reported on staffing, call types, wildfire-season preparedness and a new station project; chief said the state’s wildland mapping can be formally challenged beginning January 2027.
Farmington Fire Chief Shelby Willis presented the department’s first-quarter report to the Spring Heights City Council on April 21, outlining staffing targets, call trends and preparations for an early wildland season.
Willis said crews maintain eight personnel on duty at peak and seven as a minimum to ensure capacity to run simultaneous calls. The department’s apparatus includes engines, a 116-foot aerial ladder, two brush trucks, a water tender (1,500-gallon capacity) and a small off-road rover with a 200-gallon tank that can access brush areas.
First-quarter call patterns showed a predominance of medical calls (cardiac, seizures and allergic reactions) and traffic incidents as the major fire-related responses. Willis emphasized community-risk reduction work: plan reviews, annual inspections, fire-hydrant testing and multi-agency walk-throughs at Cherry Hill to prepare for large-event mitigation.
On wildland risk, Willis said the state-mandated wildland-urban-interface mapping has produced risk assessments for the county; municipalities can formally challenge maps beginning January 2027, following a prescribed process. Willis noted that Davis County lacks very-high-risk areas so most residents are not being assessed a fee now, but insurance companies may still adjust premiums independent of the map.
Willis also described a Farmington station project: a west-side station is under construction with an estimated 13-month timeline to open; fully staffing two stations would require about 15 additional hires and roughly $2 million annually. The chief said Farmington had renewed its four-year EMS license after an RFP process and is preparing for an ISO (Insurance Services Office) assessment in June.
Council members asked about how station siting affects response times and about mitigation steps residents can take to reduce insurance impacts; Willis recommended property-level mitigation and noted a process for property assessments that residents can pursue.
The council thanked Chief Willis for the briefing and for departmental preparedness work ahead of a potentially early brush-fire season.
