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Good Afternoon!

We hope this finds you safe, well, and if you are affected by the flood, on the way to recovery.

We want to provide a clear update on our current operational status and the path forward following this flooding event. At this time, we are fully operational, response ready, and prepared to continue serving our community.

Please continue to use 911 as your needs dictate. Our crews are staffed, equipped, and ready to respond.

At this moment, we are actively checking in with our personnel to ensure that they and their families are safe and supported. Many members of our team served this community while managing impacts to their own homes and loved ones. Their dedication and professionalism under these circumstances cannot be overstated. I am incredibly proud of this team, and it is truly an honor to serve alongside these professionals.

We have formally ended our operational incident command structure and transitioned out of initial response mode and into the recovery and rebuilding phase. Initial response mode focuses on immediate life safety operations such as rescues, evacuations, and urgent hazard mitigation. As conditions stabilized, our operational focus appropriately shifts to supporting coordinated recovery efforts while maintaining full emergency response capability.

Throughout this event and moving forward, we are actively participating in countywide coordination meetings to ensure alignment across agencies and jurisdictions. We are grateful for the support and engagement of our Fire Commissioners who are attending these meetings and for the assistance of our elected officials at both the county and state levels.

I’d like to provide an update regarding the district fire station located at 101 East Main Street. Floodwater did enter the station during the peak of the event. We are now working through appropriate decontamination, insurance, and repair processes to ensure the facility remains safe, healthy, and response ready. Our station at 5664 Lawrence Road doesn’t appear to have been affected and is still operationally ready for response. All of our apparatus (engines, ambulances, etc.) are operational and will be going through appropriate post-incident checks and maintenance.

Because of extensive preplanning and strong interagency collaboration, we were able to have the necessary response and rescue resources in place to promptly meet the needs of our community. Please allow me the chance to give you a snap shot of what was done to fulfill our mission to you and your neighbors.

As soon as it became clear that floodwaters would impact our community and our operations, we immediately deployed a notification team that went door to door in the most flood impacted areas to share information, provide updates, and check on residents.

Through the combined efforts of Prospect Dispatch, Everson Police Department, Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, and South Whatcom Fire Authority resources, we positioned fully response ready water rescue teams in locations that allowed them to operate effectively around the physical divide created by rising floodwaters. These teams were in place and ready before the flood waters crossed Emerson Road. This ensured we could safely manage a historically heavy influx of rescue calls as conditions evolved.

At the height of the flooding, our Everson fire station (101 E Main) was isolated and began to take on water. As conditions worsened, we were actively initiating our own evacuation and command relocation when water levels began to recede. Once isolated, we were unable to receive additional personnel at the station beyond the initial staffing plan and were temporarily unable to deploy additional resources from that location. This scenario had been anticipated through preplanning. Fire and EMS vehicles were pre staged away from the station, and plans were in place to bring in mutual aid partners once egress was no longer possible. While not ideal these measures ensured uninterrupted emergency response throughout the event.

As part of our response, we requested and were assigned a water rescue team from Thurston County through Washington State Mobilization. State mobilization is the process that allows local jurisdictions to request specialized emergency resources from elsewhere in the state when local capacity is exceeded. We extend our sincere thanks the Thurston County Dive Team, Chief Nolze, our local mobilization coordinator, and his mobilization team for securing access to this critical resource. We understand the Thurston County team was released from our incident and was re-directed to Skagit County. We wish them the best as they serve our neighbors!

We also want to recognize and thank the team at BORSTAR, the U.S. Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue unit. BORSTAR personnel, with their boats and swift water personnel, joined our water rescue operations serving Everson and Nooksack after the waters crossed Main Street. Historically, this is when we receive over 80 911 calls for rescue in under an hour. As floodwaters moved north, BORSTAR followed conditions to Sumas and seamlessly integrated into rescue efforts alongside the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue teams and Whatcom County Fire District 14, continuing lifesaving work in surrounding communities.

Now allow me a moment to share WCFD#1's gratitude.

We are deeply grateful to South Whatcom Fire Authority, Chief Nolze, Chief Mitchell, and their water rescue team for their outstanding collaboration and support that provided rescue capabilities at the start of flood impact to our district.

We also extend our appreciation to the team at Prospect Dispatch which is part of the Bellingham Fire Department. Chief McDermott and his exceptional team of dispatchers increased staffing and built the communications foundation necessary to ensure consistent dispatching and information sharing throughout the incident. Their work ensured that not a single call went unanswered and that our teams were able to communicate.

We want to share a special thanks to the Everson Police Department and the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, including their Search and Rescue division. Unified operations involving rescue boats, overland vehicles, and water rescue teams allowed us to maintain effective operational capacity while preserving availability for non-flood related emergencies. We are grateful for the professional collaboration with our law enforcement partners.

We sincerely thank the Bellingham Fire Department for staffing a medic unit at our Nugent’s Corner station. This support ensured that advanced life support services remained available and allowed crews to continue accessing calls for service as floodwaters disrupted regular response routes. Their assistance was critical to maintaining ALS coverage to the east county during the incident.

We wish to thank Deputy Director Matt Klein of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management and his team. His consistent work, preplanning, and communication were vital to our operations and ensured our needs were met, from supply requests to urgent critical resources. DEM also provided communications support and deployed their communications van to Station 81. Robert Greene’s work with the communications van supported radio traffic, aerial and drone footage, and operational awareness that helped guide response decisions.

We are equally grateful to our local radio volunteers, led by Jim Blattner, who provided real-time road and weather conditions throughout the incident. Their information helped ensure we had a clear understanding of evolving conditions and directly informed how we planned and adjusted our response.

We also extend our gratitude to community partners who stepped forward with time and resources. Nooksack Valley School District provided facilities for temporary sheltering, ensuring rescued residents had a warm and dry place while longer term sheltering was arranged. We also thank The Haven Church for rapidly opening a shelter when access to primary shelter locations was cut off.

Finally, we extend heartfelt thanks to the Gaertner family providing much needed snacks and water and a hot meal when local resources were unavailable, and to Dalton with JPC Domino’s Pizza in Bellingham for delivering pizzas to our headquarters before floodwaters cut off access.

Even in difficult times, there are moments that remind us of the strength of community. We were deeply touched by the outpouring of support, volunteer offers, and encouragement from across our towns, county, state, and nation. Thank you for your trust, resilience, and partnership.

I apologize if I have inadvertently missed anyone in these acknowledgments. Please know that this response reflects the immediacy of ongoing operational demands, and we are committed to providing a more comprehensive recognition of all partners as those demands decrease.

We remain here, response ready, and committed to supporting our community through recovery and rebuilding.

Rachel Carlson
Fire Chief ... See MoreSee Less

4 days ago

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Our brothers and sisters over at Whatcom County Fire District 1 have been hard at work, and several other agencies across the county have increased staffing today in response to the continued flooding impacts. As crews work around the clock, we’re asking the community to help keep everyone safe by remembering the following:
• Please obey all road-closure and detour signs — they’re in place to protect both you and the neighborhoods experiencing high water.
• Avoid driving through standing water. Depth can be difficult to judge, and even shallow water can disable your vehicle or push additional water toward already affected homes. ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

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