M-F ambulance district employees step down
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, August 13th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: Umatilla County Emergency Manager Sage DeLong reports that one ambulance in Milton-Freewater is operational. If that ambulance is out on a call, mutual aid from surrounding agencies will respond.
UPDATE: Umatilla County Emergency Manager Sage DeLong says the district will have coverage from other agencies. Any calls for Milton-Freewater Dispatch will be transferred to Umatilla County Dispatch. At that point, the principal responder is East Umatilla Fire & Rescue.
DeLong has also communicated with Umatilla Tribal Fire, Pendleton Fire & Ambulance, and Umatilla County Fire District No. 1 for the possible need of mutual aid.
“There is coverage for that area,” he said. “There are a lot of other components involved in this, but the people will be protected.”
MILTON-FREEWATER – A letter has been issued to those who live in the Milton-Freewater Valley Ambulance District. We have obtained a copy of the letter from an unnamed source, because they are not allowed to comment on the issue. It reads:
“Effective 8/13/2024 at 10 a.m., all career firefighters, EMT’s, and Paramedics have resigned and will no longer be responding to calls of any nature. We believe that this is in the best interest of all staff and the community.
“This departure is due to multiple safety and ethical issues within the department that have not been addressed by management.
“In the best interests of the community, the staff has coordinated with Umatilla County Emergency Management to minimize a disruption in service.”
We are seeking further information from Umatilla County Emergency Manager Sage DeLong and will update this breaking news post when we get more information.
