Two Salkum crew members honored by state firefighters’ association

Two crew members from Lewis County Fire District 8 located in Salkum received honors from the Washington State Firefighters’ Association at an annual awards banquet held recently.

Shari Keim was named Volunteer EMS Responder of the Year, while Kat McDaniel was named Volunteer Support Person of the Year.

Together, District 8 received two of the five awards given on the night.

Keim began her EMS journey with the department 19 years ago and has served as the fire department secretary since 2011. She took on the role of secretary to the board of commissioners in 2013. Keim made lieutenant in 2012 and captain in 2022.

According to the department, in the late 2000s, Keim moved to Wyoming for work and would fly back to Washington monthly to pull a duty shift on the ambulance. Now that she has moved back to the district, Keim spends most of her time on the ambulance, so much, in fact, that the department calls the ambulance her “second office.”

McDaniel has been with the department for 17 years and has served many roles, including EMT and incident safety officer. She has also handled personal protective equipment (PPE) management as well as cleaning turnouts for 32 personnel — not to mention cooking dinner for the crew every drill night.

McDaniel is one of the officers for the local EMS-firefighters’ association.