Fire District 8 adds three staff members

Spokane County Fire District 8 swore in three new staff members this week, including the district’s first full-time female firefighter-paramedic.

Deputy Chief Tony Nielsen said the district has had some female volunteer firefighters, but Amanda Jordan is the first woman on its paid force.

In addition to Jordan, Blake Richards received his badge as a firefighter-paramedic and Thomas Hatley was sworn in as training division chief. They began work April 16.

Before joining District 8, Jordan was a paramedic for the American Medical Response Spokane ambulance operation and had volunteered at the Airway Heights Fire Department and Spokane County Fire District 8, Nielsen said.

Richards previously was a firefighter-paramedic for the Pullman Fire Department, Nielsen said. Before that, he worked for Spokane County Fire District 9 and did a paramedic internship with the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department.

Hatley worked a dozen years for the Lewiston Fire Department, where he was a captain filling in as a battalion chief when District 8 hired him.

In other business at this week’s District 8 commissioners meeting, Chief Bill Walkup gave a progress report on efforts to remodel the district’s station in Valleyford, where heavy snow collapsed the roof in February 2008. Nielsen said the work was delayed when mold was discovered in the crew quarters.

The station remains in use during construction. Because of the mold, Nielsen said, two on-duty firefighters and a resident intern were shifted to the training room, which was converted to temporary living quarters with cubicle walls.