Dedicated to volunteers
Newman Lake’s new fire chief thinks the 45 volunteers battling blazes and saving lives are every bit as professional as career firefighters.
Rick Cokley has spent significant time in both arenas.
He worked 16 years for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, while simultaneously serving as chief of the San Juan Bautista Volunteer Fire Department. The 50-year-old Cokley retired from the CDF in 2000, and his more than 20-year tenure with San Juan Bautista was mostly unpaid. Within only the past few years, he received part-time salaries as chief and public works director.
“I was a career firefighter for a while. My heart and soul has always been with the volunteer firefighters,” Cokley said from his Station 1 desk about three weeks into his Newman Lake job that started Sept. 18.
The Newman Lake Fire and Rescue District, Spokane County Fire District 13, serves a year-round population estimated at 2,500, a number roughly doubling in the summer. The department handles about 100 calls a year, both fire and medical, in a district covering 22 square miles north of Trent Avenue (Highway 290).
“Seventy percent of the United States is protected by volunteer fire departments,” Cokley said. “The volunteers are not doing this for pay but because they care about their community.”
These same volunteers put in many hours learning fire and rescue techniques, he said, including at Newman Lake where the department holds four evening training sessions a month.
Cokley, with a $36,000 salary as chief, works about a four-day week, seven to eight hours a day. However, his schedule can vary with county meetings or training. Cokley believes he should attend most training sessions for volunteers.
“I’ve personally been involved with other departments where the chief says, ‘Go train,’ and takes off,” he said. “Not a good example. These people are taking time out of their lives. I feel I should at least be there. There may be times I don’t stay until the bitter end, though, because I’ve been here since 7 a.m.”
Cokley’s an early bird, usually up by 5 a.m., and preferring to arrive early to work.
Newman Lake also has two part-time paid deputy chiefs and a few positions offering stipends, such as the maintenance officer. The district has one part-time secretary.
“Between all of us (Cokley and deputy chiefs), we split coverage so we always have a chief officer available,” Cokley said.
Cokley and his wife, Christina, who is finishing up work in California before moving, were introduced to residents at the community’s September barn dance.
When not working, Cokley has two passions: fly fishing and rodeos. Growing up in Salinas, Calif., and spending time at friends’ ranches, he got hooked on rodeos in his 20s when he did steer wrestling. For 33 years, he served as the Salinas pro rodeo’s committeeman, a job running the roping chutes that he plans to do at least once more in July. It requires coordinating the correct order of livestock and horses.
Cokley, who had fished area streams and visited a relative here, knew of the Spokane area when he saw Newman Lake’s job opening. He comes here as the volunteer department – with an annual budget of about $400,000 – faces the challenge of building a new fire station to replace Station 1, built in the 1960s on West Newman Lake Road. A second station is north of the lake.
Estimated at $1.5 million, the new station and community center are planned on department-owned land at Starr and Moffat roads. Plans call for construction within five years.
“I would like it to happen earlier,” said Cokley. “We’re exploring both grants and low-interest funding.”
His other goal is rotating in equipment upgrades, including replacing an aging water tender. Newman Lake has two 2000 model fire engines, two EMS-equipped brush trucks, three water tenders, one rescue truck, two staff vehicles and a fire boat.
From his CDF work, Cokley brings a background strong in wildland firefighting. However, the CDF makes sure firefighters know how to handle it all, Cokley said.
“You’re trained just like a city firefighter but you also do wildland fire fighting and emergency medical procedure, structure fires, hazardous material.”
Cokley also worked within a CDF helicopter “helitac crew” as captain of eight to 10 firefighters. The helicopter pilot drops off the captain and crew to fight fires with hand tools, and the pilot continues to assist with water drops.
Wildland fires at any level require a lot of respect, Cokley said. “It can be very routine to immensely terrifying. If you don’t respect it, it can definitely get you.”
“The potential is here to have a major incident, with what they call the urban interface, all the people moving here. A lot of families are living out in the woods. That’s why here we’re always stressing to homeowners the need for defensible space around the home, keeping brush away from the home and pine needles off the roof, and access for trucks.”
Newman Lake’s department seems up to any challenge, based on what Cokley sees.
“It seems to be a very well run department. There’s a lot of dedication. The volunteers I’ve seen here are professional and well-trained. My goal is to continue that professionalism.”