Metaline Falls Volunteer Fire Department
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T0SHEA
N 48° 51.648 W 117° 22.270
11U E 472776 N 5412048
The tiny town of Metaline Falls has, strangely, two fire halls sitting next to each other. This one is operated by the town of Metaline Falls, while the other falls under the auspices of Pend Oreille County.
Waymark Code: WMKY8T
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 06/13/2014
Views: 1
Housed in an old Lehigh Cement Co. building, the department shares it with the Department of Public Works, so we're uncertain how many firefighting vehicles are behind the three overhead doors.
Given their close juxtaposition, we assume that the fire departments of Metaline and Metaline Falls (one mile apart) share manpower when it becomes necessary. This being the case, Metaline Falls has two fire chiefs, a fire marshall and a total of at least fifteen volunteers at their disposal.
Both the Metalines grew up around large deposits of Zinc and Lead, and so were exclusively mining town for the first decades of their lives. Though there is much low grade ore left to be harvested in the area, no mining activity of note takes place at present. Metaline Falls, with a present population of about 240 souls, never was much larger, as its fortunes rose and fell continuously with the prices of and demand for lead and zinc.