International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 452 elected union leaders in November and December 2025, mostly maintaining existing leadership for the Vancouver local.
President Ryan Reese, Treasurer Dave Sturbelle, and vice presidents for each of the local’s four units were elected by acclamation.
The unit vice presidents are Dean Tracy for Vancouver Fire Department, a unit of around 210 firefighters and paramedics; Judson McCauley for Vancouver Fire Command, a dozen workers in the same department; Lyndsey Maylone for North Country Emergency Medical Service (EMS), with 12 paramedics and EMTs; and Andrew Hodsdon for Clark County Fire District 6, with 80 firefighters and paramedics serving the southwestern portion of Clark County. All but Tracy were incumbents.
Half of the shop stewards were also elected. The local’s vice president, secretary, and other half of the shop stewards will be up for election in 2026.
Reese is now in his third two-year term as president of Local 452. He also served as president of IAFF Local 1805 for around 17 years before Local 1805 merged with Local 452 in 2021.
A growing union
Thanks to a wave of retirements and an increase in funding, the Vancouver Fire Department unit has welcomed 83 new members in the past five years.
Previous changes to the fire service resulted in growth spurts, like when departments increased the amount of time off between shifts in the late 1960s and early 1970s and when safety concerns about firefighting rose in the 1990s.
“All of a sudden, 30 years later, all those people are going to retire at the same time,” Reese said. There will likely be another big wave of retirements from fire service 25 to 30 years from now, Reese said.
With so many new firefighters, training and mentorship needs have increased — both on the job and for union involvement. The IAFF 7th District, which includes Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, hosts an annual conference for new members to learn about the union. Reese said many members who were sent by Local 452 to the conference end up seeking out positions as shop stewards or union committee members.
Newer firefighters “haven’t experienced the losses, or the two-person staffing, or the fight for wages and the health care that they enjoy today. So it’s incumbent on us to continue to educate them on how we got here,” Reese said.
Building community
“Five people out of 320 can’t keep this local afloat, so we’re always trying to find ways to keep the membership involved and engaged and moving forward,” Reese said.
Every year, Local 452 collects and distributes winter jackets to elementary school children through its annual Operation Warm. Local 452 members hold puppies in front of their fire engines in photos for a 2026 calendar (available for purchase) through a partnership with the Southwest Washington Humane Society. The union also does a holiday toy drive and delivers holiday meals to families on hospice.
Local 452’s community involvement includes the labor community too. Reese is proud of the local’s relationship with the Southwest Washington Central Labor Council, which holds its monthly meetings in Local 452’s union hall.
Looking back
Reese said the union’s biggest recent accomplishments include passing a 2022 ballot measure that increased Vancouver property taxes to fund additional staff, fire trucks, and station improvements; and getting the City of Vancouver to switch from being self-insured for workers’ compensation claims.
In April 2025, Vancouver enrolled in the Washington Department of Labor and Industries’ (L&I) workers’ compensation insurance. When Vancouver was self-insured, employees with work-related illnesses would have their claims reviewed by a third-party administrator. Reese said that process was drawn out, often taking years and leading to expensive and time-consuming legal battles while workers tried to get care — even for illnesses with clear connections to firefighting, like lung cancer or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Current negotiations
Local 452 is currently in contract negotiations with Vancouver, where the unit’s contract expired at the end of 2025. Reese said negotiations are heading toward mediation after seven negotiation sessions, which is sooner than in the past.
“We’re a little bit surprised that we’re already ahead for mediation after seven (meetings). But I think it also speaks to the current state of affairs regarding budgets and finances for cities and the current economic conditions,” Reese said. Wages and health care costs are the biggest concerns, Reese said.
A unified fire service?
One of Local 452’s biggest priorities for 2026 is exploring a regional fire authority. Regional fire authorities are special taxing districts that bring together multiple fire response agencies. The elected leaders overseeing those agencies would have to agree to move forward in forming a regional fire authority, and voters would have to approve the plan.
Local 452 hosted a class about regional fire authorities in December, bringing together labor, management, and elected officials from Clark County Fire Districts 3, 5, and 6; Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue, and the Vancouver Fire Department.
A regional fire authority would “give us the ability to ensure that the closest units are getting to the emergencies, the proper staff rigs are getting to the emergencies, and so on,” Reese said. Elected government officials, not unions, would have to take action to form a regional fire authority, but Local 452 is getting the ball rolling.
Local 452 Political Action Director Kevin Hart will be working with elected officials to help facilitate the process, but it could take a year or even longer, Reese said.
