KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- Kalispell is working with two rural fire departments to repair a contentious relationship over mutual aid agreements, the city's mayor said.
In a letter to the editor of the two Kalispell newspapers, Mayor Tammi Fisher wrote that the city has wanted to rebuild relationships with the Smith Valley and West Valley volunteer fire departments since January 2010, when West Valley didn't seek help from city firefighters for a house fire in a subdivision within a minute's response time from a Kalispell fire station.
At the time, rural fire departments communicated on a different dispatch channel, but Flathead County now has an integrated dispatch.
Fisher said after that fire, "it was clear the poor relationship began to affect fire response time, with the potential to affect public safety. That risk was not acceptable to city administration."
By the end of last summer, Fisher said the city and West Valley had a plan to create a better working relationship, which included the city's purchase of a water tender. She noted rural departments operate in areas that do not have hydrants and the city's equipment required hydrants to operate.
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The water tender is scheduled to be delivered to Kalispell in the spring. Fisher said at that point, the city will work with Smith Valley and West Valley on mutual aid agreements.
The issue came to a head again last month, when the chiefs of the two rural fire departments questioned why firefighters from as far away as Columbia Falls and Bigfork were called to a Jan. 12 house fire in Kalispell that killed two people, while they were not.
"The issue is that both Smith Valley and West Valley have automatic mutual aid agreements with the city," Smith Valley Fire Chief Doug Scarff told the Flathead Beacon. "They're not utilizing the closest available resource, even though they say they do."
Scarff and West Valley Fire Chief Rodney Dresbach said departments farther away were called to assist with a report of smoke at a Kalispell restaurant on Nov. 2 and at a Kalispell hotel on Dec. 31, which they said demonstrated a trend in which their departments were being bypassed.
"It's the same personalities on the west side that continue to cause problems for a lot of the people we work with," Kalispell Fire Chief Dan Diehl said. "As the chief, I've got to look at how well everyone's working together, and right now, things are working well."
Fisher said that while the deaths of John Nelson, 74, and Jackie Nelson, 72, were tragic, "the actions of the city firemen and the assisting departments was exemplary."
"Simply put, the outcome of the fire would not have been any different had West Valley or Smith Valley been present," Fisher wrote.
Scarff and Dresbach have since resigned. Scarff resigned last week and Dresbach's last day of work is Feb. 19.
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He told the Daily Inter Lake that his resignation is not related to the ongoing dispute and that he has taken a fire chief's job in eastern Montana that offers more stability.
