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NEWPORT — Rob Owen’s earliest memories, made at age 3 or 4, were of Newport’s volunteer fire department.
“For the rodeo parade, Grandpa would drive the fire truck, and I would throw candy from the fire truck,” Owen said. His grandfather was chief of the department. “That was in the early ‘80s.”
Owen’s whole life is filled with memories like these.
While Owen’s grandfather was still there, Owen’s father joined the volunteer fire department around the late ‘80s, then took over as fire chief. Just as his father did, Owen would go down to the department, clean fire trucks and help with other tasks, before taking over as fire chief himself. His children followed, washing fire engines and throwing candy at the Newport Rodeo Parade.
“You just join the fire department ‘cause that’s what our family does,” Owen said.
But Owen was the last in this tri-generational line of Newport fire chiefs. Eight years after he became fire chief in 2010, the City of Newport contracted with Pend Oreille Fire District 4 — a decision Owen said he supported “in order to have better service.”
After that, the volunteer fire department was taken over by District 4, then South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue, which the city contracted with in 2023 after its contract with District 4 expired. The department was no longer all-volunteer.
“It was better for the citizens, and it was better for the volunteers that wanted to stay because we got better training,” Owen said.
And now, the volunteer fire department is no more. At their March 4 meeting, the Newport City Council voted to repeal the department from municipal code, officially disbanding it.
“We’re just not utilizing it,” city administrator Abby Gribi said at the meeting. “And we haven’t utilized it for the past several years.”
Newport established the volunteer fire department as early as the ‘20s, with some documentation of the department going back even further, SPOFR fire chief Shane Stocking said.
In its prime, the department had 20 to 25 vol- back to the way it was,” Owen said.
It may be no more, but “historically and sentimentally,” Owen said the volunteer fire department is still in Newport.
Before cell phones and even pagers, volunteer firefighters responded to the fire horn on Newport City Hall. Owen wishes it went off at noon every day like it used to, but “everything changes,” he said.
Though he will put up a fight if the city ever tries to take down the Newport Fire Department sign in front of the fire station.
“I don’t see that the volunteer department has gone away. It’s just changed,” Owen said. “So it’s no longer the ‘City of Newport Volunteer Fire Department.’ We’re South Pend Oreille.”
