History
The organization known today as Clallam County Fire Protection District No. 4 (CCFPD4) was formed in 1955 by a Voluntary Service Group. Its original boundaries were defined by the Joyce voting precinct. The district annexed a portion of the Eden voting precinct in the 1970s and later, through a merger, annexed the Freshwater Bay area in 2004. Its ambulance service (BLS) began in 1985 and has since expanded.
The CCFPD4 district now employs a full-time chief, a part-time administrative assistant and approximately 25 volunteers, including several paramedics and ten or more EMTs. Many of its volunteers are trained as both EMTs and firefighters.
The Joyce Community is blessed with this dedicated group of voluntary first responders who spend untold hours protecting our community from health care issues, accidents, and fires. CCFPD4 personnel responded to 373 calls in 2022, averaging about 4.5 responders per call arriving at the scene.
CCFPD4 vehicles and equipment are housed in two stations. Information about these facilities and those preceding them is provided below, from the most recently occupied back in time to the construction of the first station, built in 1980.
Administration Building
In 2019, CCFPD4 commissioners seized on an opportunity to buy the nearby former Latter Day Saints Church property at 51162 Hwy 112 at a bargain price. The facility met the district’s administration and training needs. The value of the 5-acre property and the church building, its grounds, parking lots, utilities, septic and storm drainage systems and its two established WSDOT entrance/exits to Highway 112 was appraised at $607,951, yet the CCFPD4 board bought the property, including its improvements, for $330,000 with existing funds, with the vision of an adjacent apparatus bay when funds became available. The purchase closed in March 2020.
The former church building was occupied in April 2020, because the COVID-19 pandemic looked like it might require the facility to become a command center and as it was much better suited to support those functions. It now serves as the CCFPD4 administration building and training facility, representing one half of the soon to be improved fire station complex. The new apparatus bay will be built on the lawn between the admin building and Highway 112, saving taxpayer dollars as septic systems, stormwater systems, Crescent Water Association connections, PUD connections, communication lines, and environmental expenditures and other requirements were largely covered by the LDS property purchase.
After the move in early 2020 the pandemic continued to add uncertainties with respect to materials, logistics, professional services, and financial markets. It was decided, with the Board’s approval, to put the building process on hold for approximately six months. In a September 2020 meeting the committee concluded that, due to many uncertainties concerning the pandemic, supply chain issues, materials and labor costs and availability, DNR income, and contractor and engineering availability, it was best to postpone the process for a while longer.
Proposed Apparatus Bay
Our volunteers currently respond to calls from Stations 41 and 42. A study was begun in early winter 2017, after consulting with some professionals in the building industry and after receiving guidance from a FEMA professional engineering study on unreinforced cinder block buildings. It concluded that Station 41 would collapse in a large earthquake, rendering the apparatus and most of its equipment inaccessible. Recognizing this and other shortcomings, the committee decided in that same year that plans to retrofit the old building were off the table as it had been deemed inadequate and unsafe. The board was informed it would be more feasible to build a new station in a new location, a structure that met today’s building codes and seismic safety requirements.
A Building Committee was formed in the summer of 2017, before the hiring of CCFPD4’s first full-time Chief, to explore options for a new station. The new chief agreed with the former chief that the district needed a safe place to house its first response apparatus, additional space to adequately train its volunteers, and adequate operational space to perform Incident Command duties in the event of a disaster. The committee explored several possibilities and consulted with experts before submitting its recommendations, including that a new building should be located in the Joyce central area.
In the summer of 2018, the Board pondered how the project would be paid for. Grants were discussed and pros and cons were presented. Some financing information was gathered by Chief Waters and very low interest rate government loans were briefly discussed. A Building Finance Advisory committee was established later, in March 2022, to explore funding options and facilitate planning.
In April 2021, the Committee met to develop a concept and drawings, so that when asked for pre-engineering bids they would have the basic and necessary requirements for “footprint” purposes. It conceived a 60′ wide by 80′ long 4-bay structure that could be stretched to 100′. Pricing remained high and, given the many impacts of the pandemic, the committee remained in a holding pattern.
In September 2021, with the Board’s approval, the district advertised a request for qualifications for firms to supply engineering and architectural services, resulting in a contract with Zenovic & Associates to execute a site feasibility study, civil engineering services, and to supply the architectural and engineering drawings for the apparatus building.
The newly formed Building Committee met in mid-January 2023 to review designs, recommend a plan to move forward, and to discuss contracts with Zenovic, McNeely Design and Construction, and Pheonix Construction. A “CCFPD4 Consultant Agreement” with Larry McNeely was approved by the CCFPD4 board on February 1, 2023.
The Building Committee and Building Finance Advisory Committee are fully engaged in developing suitable fundraising strategies with the intention of completing the project in 2023-2024.
Station 42
Station 41
Land for the new Station 41 was purchased in June 1978, and a 5,200 square foot facility was built in 1980 on the 5.11 acres to house an engine and tender. It was built to replace the original fire station. Construction cost $40,000.
Originally 2,000 square feet in size, an addition of approximately 1,000 square feet was added in the late 1980s. A 1,000 square foot steel storage shed was added in 2011 to house a Safety Trailer, with funds donated by the Crescent Grange.
A study was conducted roughly forty years later to determine if Station 41 could be remodeled and enlarged to meet needs. It found the unreinforced masonry building to be inadequate and unsafe.
Original Station
The district’s first fire station was built across from the Joyce Repair Garage in 1956, at 51410 on HWY 112. It was soon too small to accommodate the volunteer force, its apparatus, and its equipment, so in January 1978 the the district began to search for a new site. A five-acre parcel for a new station was purchased in June 1978 for $10,000, and a second station was designed to meet the needs of Joyce at the time.