District History
In 1908, Fred D Hubbell was appointed the first Fire Chief by the board of trustees. The Fire Department was organized into one hose company and several officers were elected.
On April 7, 1955, Spirit Lake Fire Protection District was formed by the appointment of Homer Conklin, John Mathery, and Verna Tautenhahn to commissioners by Idaho Governor Smylie. The first commissioner meeting was held on April 27, 1955.
In June 1980, the preliminary work was started for building a fire station, which included obtaining a lease agreement from Spirit Lake Ambulance. On July 16, 1981, the first commissioner meeting was held at the new Fire District fire station.
On December 1, 1984, the Spirit Lake City Fire Department disbanded. The Spirit Lake Fire Protection District took over services until the annexation election on December 27, which was successful with 67 unanimous votes.
In January 1985, Fire Chief Hoffman set up a volunteer firefighter fund and a volunteer point system to dispense those funds appropriately.
On July 1, 1985, the Spirit Lake Fire Protection District was divided into three equal subdistricts with one commissioner elected for each subdistrict. In the same month, the final payment to the Spirit Lake Ambulance was made to pay off the fire station.
On November 4, 1986, Blanchard voters passed annexation into the Spirit Lake Fire Protection District by 92 per cent of the votes. On August 4, 1987, the groundbreaking for the Blanchard fire station took place, with construction beginning soon after. The costs for the building were all secured through donations and fundraising, as well as volunteer labor, and material and land donations.
In February 2001, Spirit Lake Fire Protection District hired the first full-time firefighter. Over the next two decades, the full-time force grew from six full-time firefighters in 2002, to seven full-time staff in 2008, to its current staffing of nine full-time firefighters in September 2018.
In November 2015, the District received and put into service a brand-new Kootenai County Emergency Services System (KCEMSS) ambulance.
As of 2022, the Spirit Lake Fire Protection District is a career firefighter-only District.
