HISTORY

Grant County, founded in 1909, was named after the U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, and is centrally located in Washington State 175 miles east of Seattle  Grant County has over 100,000 residents.  Grant County Fire District 7 (GCFD7) was established in 1956 to provide fire protection services for the North Central Grant County communities along the Coulee Corridor. GCFD7 was established by local citizens to protect precious agricultural land which gives them their livelihood.  GCFD7 operates out of two stations, its headquarters in Lakeview and second station in Blue Lake, both of which are popular vacation destinations.  GCFD7 has a year round population of approximately 4500 and seasonal of approximately 12,000. With its 28 lakes, hundreds of miles of hiking trails, caves and petroglyphs it is a recreational paradise for people.   Soap Lake is known worldwide for its high mineral count and healing properties of the water and mud bringing visitors from all over the world.

GCFD7 has a primary response area of approximately 159 square miles where it provides fire protection, basic emergency medical services, Haz-Mat Response, EMS Transport, rope rescue, water rescue, fire education and safety inspections.  GCFD7 protects several communities, City of Soap Lake, Lakeview Park, Grant Orchards, Westmont Acres, Lake Lenore, Blue Lake, Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park, and along the Coulee Corridor uniquely marked by its ancient and rugged beauty.  The communities are small and spread out amongst open high desert, ancient river beds with massive cliff walls carved out by glacial lake Missoula, and irrigated farm land where a large portion of the nations’ potatoes, wheat, corn, apples and cherries are grown.

GCFD7 has several state highways running directly through the district. The two-lane state highways have a large volume of passenger and commercial vehicle traffic. One highway is a main artery from central Washington to Northern Washington where interstates to the east and west provide commerce to the nation.  The BNSF Railway has a main railway traveling through our district with an average of 18 freight trains per day stretching more than 1 mile in length each.  Amtrak travels on this railway 4 times per day carrying on average 450 passengers each.  GCFD7 has the primary municipal and agricultural canal running through the district supplying water to approximately 1200 ranches and 50,000 residents.

The community largely consists of retirees, farmers and blue-collar workers.  Our weather is marked by dry, hot summers, and cold winters with snow.  We are frequented by high winds ripping through the Coulee Corridor which have contributed to large destructive wildfires as we saw in 2022 where hundreds of homes were evacuated. Our thunderstorms will cause flash floods, road closures, and lightning-sparked wildfires that grow quickly as the wind pushes through large open expanses littered with sagebrush and cheatgrass.