S.E.Thurston Fire / EMS wishes to thank our citizens for passing the levy lid restoration so overwhelmingly last election cycle. What this will mean to you this year will be more firefighters to answer 9-1-1 calls in a timely manner. The process of testing and hiring more firefighters takes some time and we have recently begun that process. The very first new firefighter started January 3 of this year. Additional career and volunteer firefighter/EMT's will be hired throughout 2008. By adding more qualified responders, we will be able to staff additional emergency response vehicles which will decrease response times and provide additional personnel on high hazard events like structure fires, motor vehicle accidents and cardiac arrests. Our goal is to have enough firefighter/EMTS's to staff two stations on a 24 hour basis, seven days a week by the end of 2008.