Upper Yaak chief contends dissolution will cause more problems

Letter to the Editor,

I spoke to Adrian Quintero at the Insurance Services Office this morning, questioning the rules for ISO rating. He had some interesting points.

The rating system of the Libby substation will start at a ISO rating of 10 until recognized by the ISO. That fact is contrary to the published advertisement in the newspaper about the ISO ratings.

 That well-written piece of propaganda appears to have been written by an insurance agent licking his or her chops about the profit to be made on the unsuspecting Cabinet View residents.  

And the profit would be considerable, even according to the propagandist. But I am not so sure a court looking at the truth in advertising laws might not see it otherwise.

Once the Libby’s sub-station is recognized, they then go to a 9 as long as they have all the proper equipment, records, and firefighters, which includes four firefighters assigned to that station permanently, and they cannot respond out of the Libby Fire Department for Libby Fire dispatches. 

They can only respond to Libby fires from the sub-station and with its equipment as long as they do not leave the sub-station fire area unprotected.

As you can see, Commissioners, it starts to get real sticky real fast. 

I have already notified one of the Commissioners that as the fire Chief of the Upper Yaak Fire Service area and because of our mutual-aid agreement with Cabinet View, as goes Cabinet View, so go I. If you close them I will resign immediately and you should figure out how you will protect that area.  

I am tired of this display of testosterone (and I only say that as they are two-thirds of the board) over something that is so simple. The quicker the response the more lives and property saved. 

And you will never convince me or any public official including the Board of Medical Examiners that to dispatch to an incident a fire service or ambulance service that is over 10 miles further away is in the best interest of the patients, no matter how good those people are, and they are good—that is not in question. 

In my conversation with the medical examiners one stated these words… “If they do not dispatch the closest resource and my family member suffers, I will own that county.”  You need to do  the math, Commissioners, as he will be one that decides Wrongful Death based on insufficient response time which will come back to you three, whether you like it or not. 

A personal testimony: At the height of this little fiasco I was at Cabinet View when a dispatch was made for “head-on collision on Highway 2”  about the 40-50 mile-marker. With me were three qualified responders. 12 minutes later a woman was desperately requesting all Libby ambulance volunteers to respond immediately to the Ambulance Barn. 

They had not left yet. Cabinet View would have almost been on site.  Except for the little fact that this Commission had decided that was not appropriate, not helpful. 

Hard to explain that in a court of law, so you better start figuring your defense right now. 

Simply deny this petition.

— Michael Sanders

Upper Yaak Fire Service Chief