As first responders to fires, public safety, medical emergencies, and disasters, Clallam County Fire Protection District No. 4 protects the lives and property of Joyce residents and visitors. The district advances public safety through its fire prevention, and education programs. The timely delivery of these services enables Clallam County Fire Protection District No. 4 to make significant contributions to the safety of Joyce and the surrounding county.
Fire District 4 centers in and around the village of Joyce in Clallam County Washington. The district is roughly 4 miles north-to-south and 20 miles east-to-west, 80 square miles along Highway 112. The eastern boundary of the district on Highway 112 is Ram Hill Road, about 4 miles west of the Elwha River. The western boundary is Milepost 33 on Highway 112 near Deep Creek.
The members of the fire district continually strive to stay current with evolving fire and pre-hospital medical best practices to keep the residents and visitors in our community and our volunteers as safe as possible.
Over 80% of our emergency responses require medical personnel and the services of our ambulances.
From October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019, district volunteers responded to 205 medical emergencies.
The rural nature of our district demands a high level of quality medical training and timely responses.
Ambulance transport times to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles range from 20 to 60 minutes and are dependent on distance, road quality, and weather. The nearest top tier (Level I) Trauma center is Harborview in Seattle. This is 75 miles away across Puget Sound via rotor or fixed wing aircraft, or 2-1/2 hours by road. Harrison in Bremerton specializes in heart issues, 1-1/2 hours away. In short, FD4 has challenging access to definitive medical care.
Our volunteers train to manage all scenarios, including transferring care to helicopter Medivacs and intercepting with Advanced Life Support personnel from out-of-district when necessary.
More than half of our training time is devoted to fire suppression and extrication of patients from vehicles.
Between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019 we responded to 15 fires of various types. Specifically because fires are a smaller proportion of what we respond to we continually train to keep our skills fresh.
Over the same period we responded to 16 vehicle accidents. Highway 112 can be unforgiving to vehicles and their passengers so we work hard to prepare for whatever may be presented to us on a scene.
Top Ten Ways You Can Help Us Help You:
- Take a CPR class. Even though we are proud of our quick response times, when someone collapses, every minute counts. Simple chest com-pressions, done properly, can mean the difference between life and death. Time is Muscle (referring to dying heart tissue). Please call and ask us about our next scheduled class. Also, please remember that some people having heart attacks do not have the classic chest pain, difficulty breathing, sweating, nausea, and pain radiating down their left arm. Lesser-known signs (especially with older women or diabetic patients) may simply include fatigue, stomach pain, or “just not feeling right.”
- Know the signs of a stroke “BE-FAST”: Sudden: BALANCE issues, EYE or vision problems, FACIAL drooping, ARM drift (ask them to hold both arms out in front of them with their palms up and see if one of them falls or drifts downward, slurred SPEECH. T is for TIME: please note the time and tell us when the person was last seen “normal.” As with heart attacks, Time is Brain and every minute counts!
- Do not risk driving yourself or loved one to the hospital if you (they) are sick or injured! Please call 911 and let us do our job as we can save or stabilize someone on scene giving you (them) precious time.
- Please make sure your address is clearly marked at the street and/or driveway—we cannot help you if we cannot find you.
- Please have your emergency information such as medical history, medications, allergies, contact information, etc. readily available at your house so we can get it from you or find it easily on our own. Please call us as we have some great options we can provide to make this easy.
- Please be honest with us at all times when answering our questions. We are not there to judge you on your life choices such as drugs or alcohol; we just want to be able to treat you properly.
- We are very selective about when we use our lights and sirens. If we are using them, our patient is in a very critical condition. When you see our emergency lights or hear our sirens, please safely and quickly pull over to the right side of the road and stop to let us by.
- Please wear your seatbelts. You cannot imagine the horrendous wrecks we go to where someone survives only because of seatbelts being used properly in conjunction with airbags. Along those same lines, Motorcycle riders please remember what you were told in your Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) course: ATGATT—All the Gear, All the Time.
- Most of the fire emergencies we go to are chimney and/or roof fires. Please make sure you have properly functioning smoke detectors with fresh batteries. (If you need smoke detectors, please call us and we can provide them free of charge.) Also, please have your chimney cleaned and inspected annually.
- And finally, please consider volunteering with us. Let’s have Joyce prove we are not like the rest of the country and that the spirit of Volunteerism is alive and well in Zip Code 98363