Sagle Fire hires trio

SAGLE — There are more hands on deck in the Sagle Fire District thanks to a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The district was awarded a Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response grant, which enabled the district to bring on three new firefighters.

“I recognized immediately when I started working here two years ago that we were understaffed at both the career firefighter and volunteer firefighter positions,” Chief Robert Webber said.

“There was a clear need to move forward in the best fashion possible to reduce response times throughout the district in order to provide a greater level of safety for our staff, residents and visitors.”

The new hires are Pete Shapanus, Jeff Calhoun and Solan Wolf.

Shapanus is certified at the Firefighter 1 and paramedic levels. He was previously in the auto and small engine repair trade.

Calhoun is certified at the Firefighter 1 and EMT-Basic levels. He was previously employed at Bonner General Hospital and was Sagle’s 2011 Volunteer of Year honor.

Wolf is certified at Firefighter 1 and EMT-Advanced levels and has a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore. Solan has worked in Sandpoint as a counselor for the last several years.

The SAFER grant enabled the district to boost its ranks without raising taxes.

Benefits of having additional firefighters include having two ambulances staffed with Advanced EMTs. The first-out ambulance is now staffed around the clock and the second one is cross-staffed with a fire engine.

“If the engine goes out on a call, it is estimated that the second one will be covered within seven minutes the vast majority of the time with volunteers and off-duty career staff,” said Webber.

Webber said the grant will also be a boon to agencies that have automatic and mutual-aid agreements with Sagle.

The district also raised the bar in its hiring practices by setting new minimum requirements for the entry-level positions. Applicants must have Firefighter 1 and EMT-Basic or higher level of medical certification, both of which are only accomplished with a substantial amount of training.

Webber said the competition for the three spots were tight. The three finalists worked extremely hard to get to where they are and are embracing the challenge of a career’s worth of training that’s ahead of them.

“These three gentlemen are tremendous assets to the community,” he said.