Mountain residents fear fire station loss

In the 23 years she has lived on Mount Charleston, Margaret Masanz has turned to the state forestry station for help more times than she can recall.

When her daughter fell off a horse and broke her elbow, the Division of Forestry firefighters patched it up so she could be transported safely to a hospital in Las Vegas.

When an elderly woman needed oxygen, the firefighters treated her. When Masanz spotted a small bonfire in her neighborhood late one evening, they snuffed it out before it could spread.

"They're always taking care of us," Masanz said. "We can count on them in the middle of the night. They save our lives."

County-run unit would be more costly

With the state facing a $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion shortfall, Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed transferring responsibility for staffing the Mount Charleston fire stations to the county in the next 18 months.

The county already covers most of the costs of running the state's two stations in Kyle and Lee canyons. Last year, the county paid about $888,000, using a mixture of money from a Mount Charleston taxing district and the county's general operating fund.

But the costs could jump to more than $3 million a year if the county has to run its own station, namely because the number of firefighters would double or triple. And to meet codes, the county probably would have to build a new station, at a cost of several million dollars.

With the county struggling to balance its budget, some residents and state firefighters worry that county leaders might choose to let Mount Charleston go without a full-time station.

That would push responsibility for safeguarding the remote mountain community and popular tourist area to the volunteer fire department and the U.S. Forest Service, neither of which is available around the clock.

But Commissioner Larry Brown said leaving the mountain unprotected would be "immoral."

"It could be devastating without the people up there 24/7," Brown said. "The option of walking away from the safety of Mount Charleston is unacceptable."

State firefighters lead the way

Aside from the several hundred people who live on Mount Charleston, an estimated 2.1 million visitors travel up there yearly to ski, hike, sled, picnic or take in the mountainous grandeur.

State firefighters are usually the first responders, whether it's a smoldering campfire that sparks a blaze or outdoor enthusiasts injured on trails or ski slopes.

The city of Las Vegas' fire station on Elkhorn Road is the closest unit off the mountain.

Ambulances and fire crews coming from the valley take at least a half-hour to arrive and considerably longer when the byways are jammed with traffic at peak times, said Capt. Steve Brittingham, a state forestry firefighter.

A state conservation official said the county would have a year to 18 months to take over fire-and-rescue duties.

"Our plan is to develop an orderly transition for moving this from a state responsibility to a county responsibility," said Leo Drozdoff, director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The state aims to pull its personnel from the stations in Clark, Elko and Eureka counties, Drozdoff said, adding that those are the only three counties where the state supplies full-time firefighting crews.

"The majority of the counties actually take care of this themselves," Drozdoff said. "So you've got this inequity that exists."

He agreed that Clark County pays most of the overhead at the Mount Charleston outposts. The state covers overtime costs and forked out about $130,000 last year, he said.

Shifting the station duties to the counties would allow the state to let go of two managers and two clerks whose key duties are running the forestry program, he said.

Brown said a longtime visitors task force is discussing the state's proposal, the potential effects and some possible alternatives.

The panel is made up of federal, state and county officials and residents and Mount Charleston Town Board members, he said.

The group is putting together a report for the governor and lawmakers, with the aim of showing the human cost of scrapping the unit, he said.

"It can't be viewed as a number on a page," Brown said.

Volunteers, federal crews offer backup

In Kyle Canyon, the forestry station stands across the road from Old Town. Cathedral Rock towers above the site, its granite face abutting the horizon.

Built in the 1960s, the aging station houses a small firefighting team, a fire engine and a truck.

Brittingham, a Mount Charleston resident, has worked here for 25 years. Crews are trained to handle emergency medical care and about every type of fire, including wild-land, structural and vehicle, he said. Six firefighters work three 24-hour shifts and get four days off per week. Plus, a fire captain works four day shifts a week.

Lee Canyon's station is seasonal, with four firefighters working five days a week, May through October, Brittingham said.

Volunteer firefighters supply the ambulance and assist with medical aid to patients, Brittingham said. Forest Service crews offer backup when requested, though those teams are mostly available during wildfire season, he said.

State firefighters are the only crews on the mountain 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Brittingham said. In the hotter months, they constantly extinguish illegal campfires before they flare into all-out forest fires.

Last year, a 10-acre fire threatened the Rainbow subdivision, and forestry teams snuffed it out before it burned any homes. Had residents been forced to wait for outside crews to show up, the outcome might have been disastrous.

"We're a great bargain for the county," Brittingham said.

If the county took charge, it would have to build a new station to meet modern codes, such as those requiring two restrooms and two bunk areas for co-ed crews, he said, noting that the state has never assigned female firefighters to this site.

County stations have 12 to 18 firefighters, depending on equipment. That would put yearly labor and maintenance costs at $2.5 million to $3.5 million, county officials estimate.

A full-time crew of some kind would be needed because most volunteer firefighters work jobs in the valley and aren't around in the daytime, said Dennis Lovell, a 25-year resident and volunteer firefighter.

"The mountain would have no coverage," Lovell said. "The mountain is not the place to cut funding."

Lovell's neighbor, a retired county firefighter, agreed.

Depending on outside fire-rescue teams would be "a catastrophe," especially when snowstorms make the roads impassable, Stan "Duffy" Grismanauskus said.

"The new governor, he's going about it the wrong way," Grismanauskus said. "You don't want public safety to go away."

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@review journal.com or 702-455-4519.