Seconds count

This dangerous fire in the Clarkston Heights last summer created real challenges for firefighters.

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Story Published: Jul 23, 2008 at 6:16 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 11:33 PM PDT

By Stephanie Smith

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CLARKSTON - Some call it bad planning and a first responder's nightmare

Emergency officials say too many dead ends and culdesacs in the Clarkston Heights lead to slower response times and danger to citizens and firefighters.

"One of the topics here recently is this 24th Street project," said Asotin County Fire Chief Noel Hardin. "We did a mile radius just around that particular street and there were 46 culdesac streets and not as many through streets. When your culdesac streets outweigh the through streets there's a problem, it's unbalanced.

Hardin says it's a matter of safety

"We think in terms of worst case scenario," he said. "The fire department, if we have to close off a street, we have to evacuate a neighborhood, the more options we have to move people around and move the public around in a safe manner is really what we are looking at."

Monday, neighbors near a proposed Heights development told county commissioners they aren't concerned about saving 10 to 20 seconds in emergency response time. But Hardin says seconds count.

"A fire can double, depending on fuel loads, every minute, so does 20 seconds make a difference, does 15 seconds make a difference, does a minute make a difference? It all makes a difference whether it's a fire, a medical emergency, if someone were having a heart attack, a cardiac problem, seconds count."

Hardin says last year fighting a Clarkston Heights fire was more difficult because of access issues.

"I go before the board on a regular basis asking for road access into subdivisions and tying streets together," said Hardin. "Last summer was a great example in a subdivision up off of Cherry Street, in Asotin County, in the subdivision we asked for at least a minimum of fire access into there, so we can move firefighters in, trucks in or if we have to evacuate a neighborhood. They opted not to do that and last summer was a perfect example. We had a fire blow up, it was a worse case scenario, the public is in danger, our firefighters were in danger, homes were in danger and streets were clogged up cause we had one way in and one way out."

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