These Pierce County fire departments want to merge. Will voters let them?
The April special election is April 22 — and if you live near Orting or Graham, you have to make a choice about your local fire station.
Ballot measures propose merging Graham Fire & Rescue and Orting Valley Fire & Rescue into Central Pierce Fire & Rescue starting Jan. 1, 2026 — making those three entities into one.
Brianna Stenstrom, spokesperson for Central Pierce Fire and Rescue, said the measure needs a simple majority to pass. If Orting voters vote to merge with Central Pierce and Graham voters do not, or vice versa, the merger would be a partial merger, she said.
Central Pierce Fire and Rescue serves residents in Parkland, Midland, Spanaway, South Hill, Puyallup and Summit. Stenstrom said the organization serves 85 square miles and roughly 240,000 residents.
The News Tribune asked Stenstrom what Central Pierce’s budget is on its own and what the budget will look like if the organizations merge. Stenstrom said that in 2023, the agency’s budget was $91 million. If the merger goes through, they expect the budget to be around $180 million. There are currently 349 Central Pierce firefighters and the merger would raise that to just over 500. Senstrom also said they are hiring for 48 empty positions, and if those are filled, there will be nearly 550 firefighters across all three agencies.
What would the Central Pierce merger cost residents?
Stenstrom said the merger will have no direct impact on residents’ wallets.
“This is not a funding measure,” Stenstrom told The News Tribune. “We’re not asking for any new funding to support the merger.”
She said CPFR, Graham Fire & Rescue and Orting Valley Fire & Rescue all have an EMS levy which charges $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value, and a regular fire levy that charges $1 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Stenstrom said these property tax levies will all stay in place and will not be impacted by the merger.
The districts have a third funding mechanism, which is the fire-benefit charge. Each of the three districts charge a fee, which Stenstrom said is “assessed on property size, property type, and associated risk factors.” The fire-benefit charge varies by district, but if the merger passes, staff would work to standardize one fee across all of Central Pierce Fire & Rescue.
The News Tribune asked Stenstrom if voters or the fire agencies will save money if the merger takes effect.
“As a district, we will realize the cost-savings through economics of scale,” Stenstrom said.
Stenstrom said the merger would help CPFR save money on purchasing supplies for emergency medical services and equipment and tools for firefighters — allowing them to use those savings to help build new fire stations without having to ask voters for additional funding.
“As we collectively combine resources, we have more money in the bank to do projects without asking for additional funding,” she said.
Stenstrom said a new Station 92 in the Graham-Kapowsin area is in the design phase. They plan to break ground for construction on the new station in 2026 and staff it sometime in 2028.
In Puyallup, Stations 41 and 66 are both undergoing remodeling after being closed for four or five years and should reopen in “the coming months,” Stenstrom said.
Stenstrom also said voters have asked her if the merger will affect insurance coverage on transport to the hospital. She said it won’t.
“Anyone who is a resident of that fire district will still not be charged any out-of-pocket costs for out-of-hospital transport,” Stenstrom said. “We would bill their [insurance, Medicaid or Medicare] first and then if there were any remaining amount that Medicaid didn’t cover, we would adjust — waive that cost because they are a resident of our fire district.”
Will this impact staffing or close any stations?
Stenstrom told The News Tribune that no jobs — firefighting or administrative — are at risk from the merger.
“No station closures, no firefighter or administrative position losses, no loss in benefits or pays,” Stenstrom said. “The merger is looking to enhance services … we’re looking at ways to improve through: ‘How can we allocate more resources to certain areas? Can we build additional stations?’”
The News Tribune reached out to the firefighters’ union, Pierce County Professional Firefighters, for comment, but did not get an immediate response. This union does have a page on its website in support of the merger.
The history behind the Central Pierce merger
Stenstrom said the three organizations have worked together for the past couple decades. Recently, the three agencies have joined forces on fleet maintenance and facilities maintenance, as well as doing joint training.
“We just started doing a lot together and the purpose behind that was that no one agency had enough resources to do those programs on their own,” Stenstrom said. “So we started relying on our neighbors through our interlocal agreements.”
She said as time went on, they started getting questions about whether it would increase efficiency to merge the organizations into one.
“As we started having more and more of those interlocal agreements, our commissioners got together and said, ‘Why are we doing everything through contract when we can just become one organization?’” Stenstrom said. “The spirit behind the merger is, ‘Hey, we’re already doing a lot together through contract. Let’s take this one step further by merging and officially operating as one.”
Stenstrom said county commissioners and fire chiefs started having serious discussions about merging roughly two years ago. In May 2024, the commissioners officially gave the agencies permission to explore what a merger would look like. Commissioners at Orting Valley Fire & Rescue, Graham Fire & Rescue and CPFR all adopted the resolution to put the merger on the April ballot in January.
“Our commissioners ultimately decided this is the best thing for our citizens, our firefighters, our community members,” Stenstrom said.
When The News Tribune asked what would happen to the commissioners of all three departments after the merger, Stenstrom said they would all merge into one board. The board would start at 15 members by combining all existing members into one unit, and then over time it would decrease to five or seven commissioners as the current members’ terms expire.
How do I vote on the Central Pierce merger?
Residents have until April 22 to cast their ballot, either by mailing it or dropping it off in a dropbox. If you mail your ballot, it must be postmarked on April 22 or earlier. If you use a dropbox, your ballot needs to be dropped off before 8 p.m. April 22.
You have until April 14 to register to vote either in person or online. Residents who are registering in person have until 8 p.m. that day to sign up.
For sample ballots, a list of drop box locations and more information, visit the Pierce County Elections website.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include more information about the fire benefit charge and to clarify the fire district’s process when it comes to hospital transportation.
This story was originally published April 13, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
