Mason County Fire District #13 | Volunteer Firefighter Opportunities Available, Donate Today

Life Jacket Loaner Cabinets – Mason

Great news for all who love Lost Lake! Mason County Fire District #13 in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Traumatic Brain Injury: Strategic Partnership Advisory Council of Washington State, Washington State Parks, Child Care Action Council and Safe Kids of Thurston County has launched a life jacket loaner cabinet at our most popular swimming spot. Free life jackets are now available for anyone to borrow—ensuring that everyone, can stay safer on the water.

But remember, safety doesn’t stop at life jackets. Always keep a watchful eye on children, know your swimming limits, and respect the water conditions. This cabinet is a tool, but our community’s caution and care are what truly make the difference. Together, let’s ensure every visit to Lost Lake is both fun and safe!

Current Mason County Burn Restrictions Information

Current DNR Burn Restrictions Information

ORCAA Complaint form for burning of materials resulting in poor air quality. Examples: garbage or furniture.

BURN BAN
PRESS RELEASE
Date: July 9, 9 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Due to the level of fire activity in Mason County, effective immediately all outdoor burning including campfires, charcoal briquettes and weed burning using torches are restricted until further notice. Please note these restrictions do not apply to pizza ovens, smokers, indoor fireplaces that have a ¼ inch metal screen over their chimney, propane fire pits or propane bar-b-ques. Your cooperation in keeping Mason County fire safe is appreciated.

Effective at 0001 May 17, 2024 Mason County Fire District 12 will no longer have liability insurance and will no longer be able to respond to calls. This does not dissolve the district, however, it will make it inoperable. We have had discussion with our insurance company if they would extend coverage to an ILA or MOU with Mason 12. They will not. Unfortunately our county wide mutual aid agreement will not cover our response to Mason 12 for two reasons as we see it. 1) the mutual aid agreement specifically states that all parties must maintain liability insurance. Mason 12’s lack of insurance voids the agreement in our opinion. 2) a mutual aid agreement needs to be mutual. If there is no response from 12 then this portion is one sided. Therefore a gifting of public funds.

The only thing that we found we can respond to is a mutual aid request from CMFE who currently has an ILA for EMS services with Dist 12. So Mason 12 won’t be requesting but CMFE will. This will not cover anything other than EMS calls that CMFE is already enroute to and we are available to respond to. No service calls and no fires of any kind.

We will be bringing all this to our commissioner board where we are sure we will be tasked with contacting our lawyers and the state auditor. The County Commissioners may enact a Declaration of Disaster. This may or may not extend to us the insurance coverage we need to respond to Mason 12 for any and all calls. Even then we will still need things in writing from our lawyer, state auditor and our insurance blessing all of it.

Please know that a fire district losing its liability insurance and therefore its ability to respond to its people has NEVER happened before. We are all learning together. The one thing we have always done is under promise in hopes to over deliver. Our goal is not to not help our neighbors in Mason 12 but to ensure our community is safe and our responders are covered in doing so. We cannot afford to risk our insurance.

Chief Stan Loertscher
Assistant Chief/Secretary to the Board Tami Donovan

Mason 13 was contacted in August 2023 to schedule our first Accountability Audit. Every year we submit an annual audit assessment to the Washington State Auditor’s Office. An Accountability Audit is a much more in depth and a thorough look at an agency’s practices and policies. This audit covered the years 2020, 2021, and 2022.

This intense audit started in November of 2023 and didn’t officially conclude until February 2024 with an estimated cost charged by the State Auditor to the district of $8,000.00. Chief Loertscher and AC Donovan tackled this audit while still keeping up with normal department operations. The workload added was many hours providing the State Auditor’s Office with various requested documents and answering their questions as to Mason 13 practices. There were many meetings held and emails exchanged. Some requested documents included but were not limited to: Commissioner Meeting Minutes, employee contracts, copies of paid vouchers selected at random, and the purchase agreement for our new fire engine.

We are proud to announce that after many hours of dedication to this audit that there were zero findings in their report. The Board of Commissioners would like to extend their deepest gratitude and appreciation to Chief Loertscher and AC Donovan for their hard work on this audit. We would like to also thank our volunteer responders who helped with their continued dedication to the Mason 13 community.

Our next audit is scheduled for Fall of 2026 for an estimated amount of $9,000.00 plus travel expenses.

Mason Fire 13 AC Report 20-22

Public Notice:

The Mason County Fire District #13 Board of Fire Commissioners will be reviewing and possibly adopting the 2024 budget at the regularly scheduled Fire Commissioner’s Meeting, an open public meeting, held on November 9, 2023 at 9 am at station 13-1, 13375 W Cloquallum Rd Elma WA 98541.

The ballot measure PASSED! Mason 13 would like to thank all who voted in favor of this Lid Lift. We will now be able to perform some much needed repairs at our fire stations. We will be sure to keep you all updated as things progress.

Stay Safe!

    Feb 2022 Ballot Fact Sheet

Mason County Fire Protection District No. 13

2022 Levy Lid Lift Ballot Proposition

Factual Statement

Mason County Fire Protection District No. 13 voters should be accurately informed about the upcoming Levy Lid Lift Ballot Measure.

The Argument Against the Measure in the Mason County Voter’s pamphlet contains factual errors and this statement is intended to set forth the facts of the tax impact of the ballot measure.

The Argument Against the Measure statement states that rejection of the ballot measure will reduce your taxes to zero.  This is factually incorrect. Taxes will not be reduced if the measure is rejected, however, taxes will be increased if the measure is approved.

The following explains how the ballot measure will affect your property taxes.

The District’s current tax levy rate is approximately $1.26 per thousand of assessed valuation.

If the ballot measure is approved by the voters the tax rate will increase to $1.50 per thousand of assessed valuation. An increase of $.24 per thousand of assessed valuation.

If the voters reject the ballot measure, the current tax rate will increase based on the statutory rate of 1%.

The impact to property owners is demonstrated by the following examples (which assume that assessed values do not change for ease of explanation).

Example 1.

Property valued at $100,000.

2022 tax is $126.00

2023 tax (ballot measure approved) would be $150.00.  An increase of $24.00.

2023 tax (ballot measure not approved) would be $127.26.  An increase of $1.26.

Example 2.

Property valued at $332,745.

2022 tax is $419.26 ($332,745/1,000 * 1.26)

2023 (ballot measure approved) $499.12 ($332,745/1,000 * 1.50).  An increase of $79.86.

2023 tax (ballot measure not approved) would be $424.25.  An increase of $4.99.

Sometime in the night of December 20, 2021 Station 13-3 near Wivell Road was broken into. The burglary has left us one station down. They have stripped our fire engine of all of its small engine equipment and have caused an undetermined amount of damage, at this time, to the fire engine its self. Mason 13 has taken some heavy hits recently. With increased call volumes we need everything we have to keep our community safe. Without a lot of down time to spare we have been spending all of our extra time combing through online sales and pawn shops looking for our equipment and possibly the people who committed this crime.

We have lost the following items:

• 1 set of Wheel Chocks
• 1 garage door remote
• Water Rescue Disc
• 2x Life Jackets
• 4x Wildland helmets
• 4x Wildland Goggles
• 4x Wildland Jumpsuits
• 4x Wildland Gloves
• 36” pipe wrench
• 18” bolt cutters
• 2x Hay Hooks
• 8x 14” Stihl cutting wheels
• Rigid Sawzall SN G0537-06092
• 50’ extension cord
• 2 gallon gas can
• Honda EM3500 SN EA6-1015609
• Hale Typhoon PPV Fan SN GC02-2043505
• Stihl TS400 Cut-off saw, SN 152799627
• TASCO Binoculars 10X25, 168BCR
• Bar tool and spare chain for chain saw
• 100’ 1/2” rope
• 50’ 5/8” rope
• Adz Hoe
• 4x Traffic Wands (used D-Cell Batteries)
• 6” to 4” LDH Piston Intake Relief Valve (broken)
• Canon PowerShot A1300 HD Digital Camera
• Stihl 290 Farm Boss Chain Saw SN 262509113
• 1x Green Diamond Keys
• 1 Port Blakely Key
• 1 Zoll AED Plus device
• 2x Adult AED Padz
• 1x Pedi Padz
• 1x AED fabric carrying case
• 2x O2 D aluminum cylinders
• 1x O2 kit hard sided green carrying case
• 1x 02 Regulator with CPAP
• 1x Lighted Stop and Slow sign (LED illuminated letters)
• Damage to 1996 H&W International Engine VIN 1HTSDADR1TH306953 (How much damage is TBD)
• Damage to exterior structure of Fire station Located at 5941 W Cloquallum Rd Shelton

All of our Stihl equipment has custom “D” pull starter rope handles.

If you have any information please contact Mason County Sherriff. 360-426-4441

Open Public Meetings Act and Public Records Act

Effective Immediately we are required to provide a virtual option for our open public meetings regardless of which phase the county is in until further notice.

Therefore the next Board of Fire Commissioners Open Public Meeting will have the following virtual option.

Meeting Registration

Mason County Fire Protection District No. 13 is placing a proposition before the voters on the February 8 ballot authorizing the District to restore its 2022 regular property tax levy to $1.50 per $1,000.00 of assessed valuation for collection in 2023. The Fire District is accepting names of people interested in participating in voter pamphlet statement pro and con committees.
The deadline for appointing the committees is December 10, 2021. Citizens interested in participating, please call 360-482-4610 by December 8th, 2021.

Open Public Meetings Act and Public Records Act

Effective Immediately we are required to provide a virtual option for our open public meetings regardless of which phase the county is in until further notice.

Thank you to all who voted and for your continued support!

The current ballot measure is not a new levy. This is a RENEWAL of the current EMS Levy. Please refer to the Mason County Voter’s Guide below.

https://voter.votewa.gov/GenericVoterGuide.aspx?e=868&c=23#/measure/4910

Measure Text
Fire Protection District No. 13
Regular Property Tax Levy Renewal

The Board of Commissioners for Mason County Fire Protection District No. 13 adopted Resolution No. 299, concerning a proposition to finance maintenance and operation expenses. This proposition would authorize the District to levy taxes for the provisions of emergency medical services pursuant to RCW 84.52.069 in an amount not to exceed $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for each of six consecutive years beginning with levy year 2021 for collection in 2022.

Should this proposition be approved?
Levy…Yes
Levy…No