Firefighters and paramedics use lights and equipment to simulate a real scenario as they train Wednesday evening outside their main fire station in La Pine. Both the La Pine Rural Fire Protection District and the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office are straining to deal with increased calls in the La Pine area.
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
La Pine police, firefighters feel tug of expanding community
Town depends on county sheriff, surrounding fire departments
By Christopher Stollar / The Bulletin
Published: October 02. 2006 4:00AM PSTLA PINE - First came the fire call about a person so burned the victim required a medical helicopter to Portland.
Minutes later, two more medical calls rang into the La Pine fire station, forcing Battalion Chief Dan Daugherty to lose several of his dozen firefighters from the first alarm for the new calls.
Then came the fourth call - within the same hour - about a fire burning in someone's yard.
Daugherty couldn't respond to that call for at least 30 minutes.
"(That's) too much," he said of the calls that came two years ago in quick succession. "Once you get past that second alarm ... it is a struggle."
In one sense, La Pine's struggle is not unique. Other fire departments, police departments and sheriff's offices throughout Central Oregon are stretched thin, fighting to keep pace with growing populations and higher call volumes.
But the La Pine area has no police department, no state troopers who regularly patrol the region and only two sheriff's deputies on average patrolling the southern region, according to Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles. Yet it has the highest percentage of calls, such as domestic violence, that require at least two deputies in Deschutes County, Stiles said. Combined, these factors have created unique challenges for public safety workers, like Daugherty, who work to keep La Pine safe.
"In a way it's unique just to La Pine," said Jim Dean, deputy chief for the Crook County Fire and Rescue, which has six paramedic firefighters. "Crook County has the luxury of having sheriff's deputies and state troopers and city police."
La Pine's law enforcement
La Pine has no police, but the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office patrols the region with two deputies on call 24/7. They provide a form of law enforcement protection to La Pine, enforcing traffic, making arrests and responding to domestic violence calls.
At least, that's what the deputies would like to be doing.
Sheriff Sgt. Joe DeLuca, 30, talks eagerly of deputies being proactive in their job, keeping a sharp eye out for burglars, drunk drivers and people using methamphetamine.
But DeLuca's deputies can't always do that.
With only two deputies on average enforcing the law in La Pine, they are often more reactive than proactive.
"It's a tossup," DeLuca said. "And it's difficult."
Part of the problem, Stiles said, is the high percentage of calls in the La Pine area that require at least two deputies.
When a resident reports domestic violence, for example, two deputies must respond for safety reasons.
In La Pine, one of the two sheriff's deputies sometimes has to respond to calls outside the southern district, Stiles said. That forces his office to steal backup from Bend, Redmond, Sisters or Terrebonne if assistance is needed in La Pine.
"We're not in a crisis," he said. "But we've got some serious issues."
One of the worst cases came about two years ago when DeLuca got two domestic violence calls at the same time, requiring four deputies.
He called for backup, phoned the state police - and waited.
"It's a very dangerous, volatile situation," DeLuca said. "(But) the most important thing is the officer's safety."
In cases such as drunken driving arrests, a deputy assigned to La Pine can be tied up because he or she must sometimes drive 45 minutes to the Deschutes County jail in Bend to perform Breathalyzer tests.
That leaves one deputy for the southern district.
"Meanwhile," DeLuca said, "your partner is doing the best to deal with calls down here."
Overall, calls in the La Pine area have grown from 7,320 in 2001 to 7,934 in 2005, according to data from the Sheriff's Office. Annual case numbers throughout Deschutes County - calls that result in sheriff reports, such as theft, drunk driving or child abuse - have also spiked during the last four years with 6,725 in 2001 and 7,869 in 2005.
"Our officers don't have the discretionary time to do proactive policing," Stiles said. "I haven't added a deputy in I can't remember how long, and the money isn't there."
La Pine's firefighters
The La Pine fire department's situation isn't much brighter.
The La Pine Rural Fire Protection District has 18 full-time firefighters and about 15 volunteers who provide fire protection to 115 square miles.
District records show almost a 50 percent increase in the number of alarm calls since 1996. There were 1,889 calls in 2005, and 773 of them came when two or more alarms occurred at the same time.
Although other fire departments throughout Central Oregon have also seen spikes in alarms, La Pine may face tougher challenges.
In domestic violence cases, for example, the Sheriff's Office sometimes relies on La Pine's paramedic firefighters for medical help.
But they must wait until two deputies arrive, and in La Pine, that could mean a long time.
"There were times when we would wait 45 minutes to an hour," said Dean, deputy chief for the Crook County Fire and Rescue, who worked for the La Pine fire department for three years in the 1980s. "You need to render care right away, but you can't."
By contrast, Dean said he rarely - if ever - has to wait for Crook County law enforcement to arrive.
One of the worst cases in La Pine happened last month, Daugherty said, when he was helping out with a rescue mission with six firefighters at Paulina Peak. Somebody had fallen off a horse, then a motor vehicle accident call came during their rescue.
La Pine's fire department could not respond.
"It doesn't take many alarms to have to reach out," Daugherty said, adding that in this case he called the Sunriver Fire Department for help.
To cope with the growing number of alarms, La Pine Fire Chief Jim Gustafson has turned to the Sunriver Fire Department for help, but responses can take 15 minutes or more.
"It's a lose-lose situation," Gustafson said. "If it's a cardiac arrest or structure fire or any number of life-threatening instances, the additional time of 10 to 15 minutes' response is not good."
Part of the problem, Gustafson said, is because the department is so small, he often has to call on firefighters who are not on duty.
Daugherty said many of La Pine's volunteer and full-time firefighters have families with toddlers, and cannot always respond to a call right away.
Daugherty said he has been forced to leave his own children's soccer games and family camping trips.
"To run out the front door at the drop of the hat is hard," he said. "You only have four to six minutes in a cardiac arrest to make a difference. And some of our response times have been longer than that."
Solutions?
Neither Stiles nor Gustafson said they see their situations getting any better, but they have each proposed tax measures this November that could increase the number of firefighters and sheriff's deputies in La Pine.
Gustafson's fire district levy would add nine new paramedic firefighters through a property tax rate of $1 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The owner of a home with an assessed value of $150,000 would pay $150 instead of the $64 they pay now. The district also has a permanent tax.
Stiles' two sheriff measures would create two stable taxing districts.
The first district would provide common public safety services for Deschutes County, such as the jail, court security, and search and rescue. Residents of District 1 would pay a proposed initial rate of 95 cents - up to $1.25 - per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The second district would offer patrol and investigative services for areas in Deschutes County outside the regions of Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch, such as La Pine. Those services would stem from a proposed initial rate of $1.40 - up to $1.55 - per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Voters will make all three of these decisions Nov. 7.
Christopher Stollar can be reached at 617-7818 or at cstollar@bendbulletin.com.
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