West Pierce Fire & Rescue Celebrates 10 Years Of Service

LAKEWOOD, WA — West Pierce Fire & Rescue is celebrating 10 years of service for the people of Lakewood and University Place.

On March 1, 2001, the Lakewood and University Place fire departments officially merged, becoming West Pierce Fire & Rescue (WPFR). Today, they operate six stations serving both cities, plus emergency services for the town of Steilacoom.

WPFR says in that decade on the job, their firefighters have been sent to help with 150,000 calls for assistance. That includes some of the region's toughest jobs like:

• The 2011 freight train derailment at Chambers Bay.
• The Narrows Marina fire during the 2015 US Open.
• The two 2017 Amtrak derailments in Chambers Bay and DuPoint.
• The Ketron Island plane crash in 2018.

It hasn't all been hard times, however. WPFR is also celebrating the work they've done for the community over the past ten years, including teaching safety lessons to nearly 60,000 local elementary school students. They also say they've installed 15,000+ smoke alarms over the past decade, trained over 750 Community Emergency Response Team members and cooked up more hot dogs "than can be counted" for their annual Open Houses.

Learn more about West Pierce Fire & Rescue and all they do for the community by visiting their website at www.westpierce.org/.