Fire department will end emergency response in some remote Whatcom County areas
Citing the cost and legal issues surrounding its emergency response to remote locations that aren’t in its direct service area, South Whatcom Fire Authority said that it will stop responding to those 911 calls on July 1.
Fire Chief Mitch Nolze disclosed its upcoming change of service in an emailed statement Friday morning.
Areas where South Whatcom firefighters will no longer respond include Lake Whatcom, Lookout Mountain, Chuckanut Mountain excluding Larrabee State Park, and parts of Galbraith Mountain, excluding the trails in a recreation easement where SWFA has an agreement with Bellingham Fire Department to provide medical and rescue services.
SWFA’s five-member Board of Fire Commissioners voted to stop providing services outside its response area without an agreement with Whatcom County, Nolze said. It doesn’t affect Lake Samish.
“The fire authority has not made this decision lightly. We have been working diligently since 2023 to attempt negotiations with Whatcom County to reach an agreement to continue providing these services. Unfortunately, Whatcom County has recently notified us that they will not be entering into an agreement with SWFA,” Nolze said.
At the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management, spokeswoman Amy Cloud told The Bellingham Herald that the Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue will continue to activate volunteers for rescue and recovery as needed. SAR units conduct urban searches as well as mountain, backcountry and swift water rescue.
“The change SWFA announced may result in longer response times, and increased reliance on volunteer SAR resources. We will continue to evaluate the potential impacts to public safety outcomes and will work with our partners to identify mitigation strategies where feasible,” Cloud said in an email. “We strongly encourage continued dialogue with our fire districts and municipal partners to ensure the public clearly understands these changes and their implications.”
Riley Sweeney, a spokesman for the Whatcom County Executive’s Office, told The Herald that SWFA will respond to emergencies at the trailheads in the South Whatcom area, “but when someone gets hurt in the back country, it is search and rescue volunteers and partners that play a critical role in getting people to safety,” he said in an email.
“We appreciate that the South Whatcom Fire Authority, like public agencies across Washington, is facing budget troubles and looking for cost-savings measures. However, the county has not and does not contract with any of the other county fire agencies to cover out-of-jurisdiction EMS services in unincorporated areas, and this is no different,” Sweeney said.
County Council member Jon Scanlon told The Herald that Lookout Mountain and other county parks are important recreation areas and that he’s asked the Executive’s Office to plan for emergency services in those locations.
“That’s a big area. I’ve had friends who’ve been helped in those areas and either been patched up or taken to the hospital,” Scanlon said in a phone call. “We need a backup plan. There’s so much recreation that goes on in those areas. I hope we figure out a plan.”
South Whatcom Fire Authority formed in 2009 when voters agreed to merge four fire protection districts composed of mostly volunteer firefighters into a single fire department. It serves the communities of Geneva, Sudden Valley, Lake Samish, Chuckanut Drive and Yew Street Road. It has a career staff of 23 firefighters and three chief officers, seven part-time and five volunteer firefighters, staffing two stations around the clock.
With a population of 13,700 people, SWFA’s service area encompasses 21 square miles. Its fire personnel have “been protecting and responding to an additional approximate 30-plus square miles of outdoor recreation space outside of our boundaries,” Nolze told The Herald in an email.
SWFA answered 911 calls for 1,102 incidents in 2025, Nolze told The Herald.
Sending firefighters to rescues in remote areas takes SWFA personnel away from their primary service area, often for an extended period.
“Emergency responses have increased significantly since SWFA was formed in 2009. The fire authority cannot legally continue to provide EMS and rescue services to areas outside of our boundaries without an agreement that adequately compensates SWFA for these services. Continuing to do so is not responsible use of our citizens’ tax dollars and is considered gifting of public funds while subsidizing another government’s responsibilities,” Nolze said in his announcement.
South Whatcom Fire Authority maintains accredited water rescue and technical rope rescue teams, according to its social media. It’s firefighters recently helped rescue a woman who had been trapped in her car for three days after driving off an embankment on Chuckanut Drive, according to previous Bellingham Herald reporting.
