Would firefighting in Washoe County be cheaper and more effective if its three different fire departments were combined? 

The seemingly simple idea of consolidating public services such as firefighting in Nevada has, over the last 50 years, turned out to be an incredibly complicated issue. It's led to lawsuits, state Supreme Court intervention and a "fire divorce." 

It reemerged in last year's legislative session when Sen. Skip Daly (D-Sparks) and Sen. Angie Taylor (D-Reno) introduced legislation requiring a study examining the possible merging of Sparks Fire Department, Reno Fire Department and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District into one entity. The bill passed and the study is now in its infancy, with a report on its findings expected at the end of the year. 

With a combined 32 stations, the three departments provide the same basic services — fire suppression and prevention, technical rescue, emergency response and hazardous materials mitigation.

But the departments rely on their own dispatch centers, staff their engines differently, and have different funding mechanisms, union representation and pay scales. Agreements detailing how and when departments respond to incidents in other agencies' jurisdictions have also shifted over the years. 

The three fire chiefs declined to speak directly to The Nevada Independent but did answer emailed questions. All three chiefs spoke favorably about revisiting the idea of consolidation and the ensuing study.

Proponents say consolidating the departments could streamline services and cut costs, although there are no concrete estimates of whether it would.

Under the current arrangement, "whoever is closest to responding to the fire, that is what the service provides, and that is what the three chiefs have agreed," Daly told his fellow lawmakers last year as they debated the legislation.

But, he added, having three departments still means three chiefs, separate training processes and duplication of equipment and training. 

It hasn't always been that way.

In the early 2000s, Truckee Meadows Fire and the City of Reno operated for more than a decade under a contract for service — not quite a consolidation, but a move that had county firefighters donning city uniforms and the county paying the city for services — to address sprawling growth and response times for service.

But reconciling differences proved complicated. That partnership devolved into a lawsuit and what many describe as a "divorce" between the two departments.

That effort was the latest in a string of failed — and occasionally successful — merger and consolidation efforts not just in Northern Nevada, but in the state. The issue has proved thorny over the decades, particularly in Southern Nevada, where consolidation efforts have risen to the level of state Supreme Court intervention.

"Consolidation rears its head every now and then in Nevada and other places because we think and hope it means better, streamlined services," said Michael Green, associate professor of history at UNLV. "The traditional argument is, 'Why have duplication? Why have two fire departments when we can have one?'"

In 2014, at the behest of the Washoe County Commission and the Board of Fire Commissioners of Truckee Meadows, a blue ribbon committee drafted a regional firefighting service report. It listed a litany of challenges to Northern Nevada fire consolidation, including aligning labor costs and contracts, agencies being forced to subsidize others for deferred maintenance on equipment and tax shifts — both increases and decreases — needed to fund it. 

But the largest obstacles to reorganization were "turf, power, and politics," the committee wrote.

"It will take substantial political will to overcome these three obstacles."

Washoe County and Reno's 'divorce'

Reno and Washoe County's partnership started well in 2000. At its height, nearly 100 county fire staff were working in City of Reno uniforms, creating a regional firefighting force of 260 firefighters. 

But the Great Recession of 2008 sparked tensions between the two entities and the partnership quickly unraveled. 

According to the blue ribbon report, Reno had exclusive authority to make expenditure decisions, but when the recession hit, the agencies disagreed on how to reduce costs. Requests by Truckee Meadows Fire to reduce the number of firefighters per engine to save money were ignored, leading to the county losing millions of dollars. It also stated the city also increased other charges to the county. 

In 2012, the county terminated the operating agreement, but tensions remained. By 2015, they'd come to a head.

The City of Reno filed a lawsuit claiming Truckee Meadows Fire owed nearly $1 million in unpaid bills. Truckee Meadows countered, claiming that city firefighters destroyed equipment and that the city refused to pay its share of final costs. It was later settled through a private agreement. 

Former Washoe County Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler, who assumed office shortly after the "divorce," told The Nevada Independent she is still supportive of trying to bring the departments back together.

"I think consolidation is an excellent, excellent idea," she said. "It's how it's done, and how it's run." 

Some of the structural issues that existed beforehand still remain, she pointed out, including how the departments are funded, and any future merger would face the same issue. 

"That became a serious problem," Berkbigler said. "That's not something you can pass over."

The cities' fire departments are funded largely through their respective general funds; combined, their budgets total about $100 million. Washoe County residents outside the cities' limits pay a designated property tax of $0.54 per $100 assessed value; that, combined with revenue from the state's consolidated tax, fund Truckee Meadows Fire. 

Because the cities and counties have different taxation rates, tax caps and funding mechanisms, some residents could end up paying greater shares of the cost, raising questions of equity. The issue was raised in the 2014 blue ribbon report and still exists today, according to those who have been involved in the issue over the years. 

The study is anticipated to examine the funding mechanism differences. 

'I want the closest fire truck to get there'

After the dissolution between Truckee Meadows and Reno, the departments stayed within their own jurisdictions when responding to calls.

But not long after the divorce, former Sen. Ben Kieckhefer's (R-Reno) father-in-law's house burned down while Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District crews drove across Reno to reach the Hidden Valley property.

Kieckhefer responded by introducing legislation in 2015 requiring "automatic aid" in Washoe County; the closest available engine would respond, regardless of jurisdiction. The City of Reno testified against the bill. The following day, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said the city should rethink its opposition and would put forward a proposal to rejoin with the county fire department.

Lawmakers passed Kieckhefer's bill, despite local concerns including determining reimbursement for cross-jurisdictional services. But it expired in 2017, and for years, the problem of who would respond lingered. 

Berkbigler recalled a man who experienced a medical incident near a county fire station who was technically within the city limits, but county responders had to wait for city firefighters to arrive. 

In another instance detailed by Sparks City Council candidate Hunter Rand, a vehicle crashed into the building where his wife worked, trapping at least one adult and one child. Reno Fire was on scene but could not respond, he said, because specialized equipment was needed from across town. Rescue operations were on hold until the equipment arrived — despite a closer fire district station having the same equipment.

"Reno is kind of the middle of the donut surrounded by the county, and then Sparks is a piece of that as well," Reno Fire Chief Dave Cochran told the board tasked with studying the consolidation. "If you are responding to a fire in the county, there is likely a county station close, but the next closest is probably going to be a Reno station or maybe a couple of Reno stations, so you are going to have county responses driving through Reno past Reno fire stations to get to that fire."

In late 2024, Reno and Truckee Meadows signed a memorandum of understanding expanding automatic aid across jurisdictional lines. There is no reimbursement for automatic aid, something Truckee Meadows Fire said it has "no concerns" about.

A few months later, during a joint meeting of officials from Washoe County, Sparks and Reno, Schieve, the Reno mayor, doubled down on the emphasis for community safety while chastising the chiefs for a lack of communication.

"As the fire chief of the City of Reno, I want you to make our city, county, Sparks, I don't care what it is, the safest it can possibly be," she told Cochran as he stood at the podium. "All I did was get pushback and pushback and pushback, and so, it's gotta be all three of you guys working together. … There has been far too much political fighting, even amongst the fire chiefs."

Cochran told The Indy that now, in general, the closest available engine responds to a fire, regardless of jurisdiction. However, additional units come from the city or county where the incident is occurring, even if they are not the closest. 

A new computer-aided dispatch system will assist with that, he said, allowing multiple units to be dispatched based on proximity, not jurisdiction. 

"I don't care what color the truck is, I want the closest fire truck to get there," Berkbigler told The Indy. 

Since the meeting last year, communication and services between the jurisdictions has improved, according to fire staff who spoke to The Indy.

Prior statewide attempts at consolidation

Attempts at consolidation in Nevada have a storied history. 

In 1956, multiple Southern Nevada school districts combined to form the Clark County School District, now the nation's fifth-largest school district.

The following decade, Ormsby County and Carson City merged in 1969 following a statewide vote and a constitutional amendment, and in 1973, legislation passed combining the Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Department into the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Green, the UNLV professor, said that even consolidation didn't solve jurisdictional tensions as Southern Nevada has grown. A vehicle accident he witnessed that straddled the border of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, which is not part of Metro, resulted in "people from both police departments standing there yelling at each other about who should respond to it."

Other consolidation efforts weren't as successful.

In 1969, the same year Ormsby County dissolved, former Gov. Paul Laxalt (R) vetoed legislation that would have established a committee to consider a consolidation of Clark County and Las Vegas without a vote by Nevadans. 

Just a few years later, lawmakers again brought up the issue of combining Clark County and Las Vegas, passing legislation in 1975 that would have consolidated the governments, including its fire departments; the following year, the State Supreme Court declared the legislation unconstitutional.

In 1977, state lawmakers sought another merger, subject to voter approval; voters defeated it in the 1978 primary.

And 15 years ago, former Assm. Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas) introduced a bill to combine Southern Nevada firefighting services that ultimately failed.

For each problem consolidation solves, others arise, according to Green.

"There's evidence consolidation doesn't necessarily save money. You still have as many residents needing to be served," he said. "You might eliminate a couple of administrative positions — is that enough?"

Consolidation does, however, often require officials to vote themselves out of a job as positions are streamlined, he said. 

And whether consolidated or unconsolidated, "there will be criticism no matter what," he said.