It is time for all of us to come to the aid of South King Fire and Rescue.

The dedicated men and women of our fire district continue to provide high quality fire and emergency medical services to our community. South King firefighters are called to provide emergency services about 18,000 times a year. That averages to be just under 50 emergency calls for service a day.

Unfortunately, the recent slump in the economy and local politics have had a negative impact on our fire district. Many of the fire engines, emergency medical services aid cars and emergency equipment the firefighters use to provide emergency services have exceeded their life expectancy. The equipment was scheduled to be replaced or upgraded months or years ago. That did not occur due to financial restraints.

Older equipment and buildings can lead to citizen and firefighter safety issues. As an example, many of our fire stations do not meet modern earthquake standards. If our fire stations and emergency equipment cannot withstand the shock, firefighters cannot get their emergency equipment out of the fire stations to render services to our community.

Fire and emergency medical vehicles must be ready to provide service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It gets harder and more expensive to maintain an older fleet of vehicles and facilities. Delaying the replacement or upgrading of mission critical facilities and equipment will just get more expensive the longer we wait.

Please join me in support of South King Fire and Rescue Proposition 1 ballot issue in the November election.

David Crossen, retired fire chief, Federal Way Fire Department