At its creation in October 2000, Kachemak Emergency Services was a service area with no firefighters, medics, equipment or a fire hall. Serving 4,400 people in an area surrounding the city of Homer and Kachemak City from Diamond Ridge Road to East End Road and Skyline Drive, KES contracted with the Homer Volunteer Fire Department to provide fire and medical protection. Its ultimate goal: to become an independent fire and emergency services department.

Nine years later, with McNeil Canyon Fire Station built and running, a fleet of ambulances and fire trucks stationed at McNeil and a temporary station off Diamond Ridge Road on Ruth Way, and with 39 volunteers on its roster, the KES Service Area Board of Directors felt it was ready to go independent. At the tick of the clock at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, KES officially separated from HVFD and became its own department.

"Everything is sounding good and we're ready," said KES Chief Bob Cicciarella, now working full time for KES. He has an assistant, Sadie Ganas. The board has approved hiring a deputy chief if the budget allows.

Last week, Cicciarella held meetings at the McNeil station, at Homer City Hall and the Ruth Way station to brief residents on the change and tested radios and antennas to make sure communications worked right. This week, firefighters and emergency medical technicians moved equipment out to the Ruth Way station. HVFD Chief Bob Painter said HVFD mobile radios can now work on both the HVFD and KES frequencies. However, crews only can listen to one frequency at a time.

HVFD and KES have worked out a mutual-aid agreement similar to that HVFD has with Anchor Point Fire and EMS, Painter said. If either department needs aid on a fire or ambulance call, department chiefs can do a page-out for the other department's staff. A key difference is that if either department responds to more than 20 percent of the other department's calls, departments can bill for that extra aid, Painter said.

The departments had discussed automatic mutual aid, where crews and equipment closest to the scene respond first regardless of department. That won't happen.

"It's all about the incident," Cicciarella said of how mutual aid will be requested. "If the situation warrants, we'll call out mutual aid ourselves."

Mutual aid agreements with Anchor Point and Ninilchik EMS haven't been worked out yet, Cicciarella said.

"We're going to have to help each other out a lot," he added. "We're a small community."

For now, all 911 calls from the KES area will go straight to dispatchers at the Homer Police Department. The 911 system will show if the call came from the KES or the HVFD area, letting the dispatcher know which department to page out. In October, 911 calls from the KES area will first go to dispatchers in Soldotna at the Kenai Peninsula's central emergency dispatch center. The 911 system will show that it's a KES call and route it to HPD dispatchers. HPD dispatchers will remain as the people who ultimately take KES and HVFD calls for the entire lower Kenai Peninsula.

Some of HVFD's volunteers have agreed to also help out KES, Painter said. About six of KES volunteers are dual members, Cicciarella said. Paramedics -- the highest level of EMT -- are rare between both departments.

To remain with a department as a firefighter or EMT, volunteers have to report to 40 percent of the calls during their shifts for HVFD. With medical calls the greater load, EMTs volunteer for two-week shifts at a time. Almost all working fires require a full page-out of all firefighters, so fires -- less frequent than medical calls -- are considered all-calls, Painter said.

"How that works out, time will tell," Painter said of an HVFD volunteer being able to serve both departments. "My personal opinion is they need to join one or the other department. It's going to be difficult for them to meet participation requirements."

People with dual membership are generally volunteers who work in Homer and live outside city limits, Painter said.

KES paid $235,000 a year to contract for HVFD services. KES assesses property owners in the service area 1.75 mills and has about a $600,000 budget. KES and the Kenai Peninsula Borough work on a fiscal-year -- July 1 to June 30 -- budget cycle, while Homer is on a calendar-year cycle. With KES ending its contract this week, Homer loses $117,500 in income. The department already has a set budget through Dec. 31, so the income loss won't immediately affect HVFD, Painter said.

"Next year, we don't know," he said.

Less than 20 percent of HVFD's calls this year have been in the KES area, Painter said. Cicciarella said the volume of calls in KES has steadily increased, from 46 in 2001 to 110 in 2007. To date, KES has had 73 calls.

Response time in the KES area has been good, Cicciarella said, with some residents saying they had been reluctant to call for medical help, figuring it was faster to take patients to the hospital themselves. That's changing.

"One woman said, 'You got here so fast,'" he said.

At the Homer City Hall meeting last Thursday, Diamond Ridge resident Dave Stutzer asked if KES would have volunteers on the west side.

"We have all levels of volunteers over there," Cicciarella said.

A fire attack engine with pumper, a 4,000-gallon fire tanker and an ambulance are at the Ruth Way temporary station. The station also has an apartment for volunteers or staff to stay. KES has a site for a fire hall near about Mile 2 Diamond Ridge Road.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Cicciarella said when asked when it would be built.

KES had hoped to get a grant under federal economic stimulus money, but missed the first round of grants. He hopes KES can get money in a second round of stimulus-fund grants, Cicciarella said.

How homeowner insurance rates would be affected by KES going independent have more to do with proximity to fire halls and hydrant systems. To get the best ratings homes need to be within five driving miles of a fire station and within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant, Painter said.

Key to success of either department is volunteers.

"We need people like they need people," Painter said. "Nothing works without the people to drive and man the apparatus. That's what it all boils down to."

To get more firefighters, HVFD holds a firefighter 1 class in September. Volunteers interested in training can pick up applications at the fire hall. The application deadline for the class of 12 is Aug. 31, with testing on Sept. 12. The class starts Sept. 14. Call HVFD at 235-3150.

Kachemak Emergency Services offices are at the McNeil Canyon Fire Station. Cicciarella said KES may hold another firefighter class and EMT classes in the fall. Call 235-9811.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michaelarmstrong.@homernews.com.