SANDPOINT — The Sandpoint Fire Department and Sagle Fire District already have each other’s back.

The two agencies’ long-standing partnership is now expected to produce a higher level of service on fire calls within the city and parts of Sagle, thanks to an automatic aid agreement.

Sagle and Sandpoint have long had a mutual aid agreement whereby one department calls upon the other in a time of need. But under that pact, one agency would be dispatched, arrive on the scene and determine whether additional fire-fighting resources would be needed.

Under the new agreement, Sandpoint and Sagle would be dispatched to fires simultaneously.

“Both agencies get dispatched at exactly the same time,” said Sagle Fire Chief Rob Goodyear. “It cuts down the response time of a second engine by three or four minutes. It’s a much higher level of service.”

The automatic aid agreement would only apply to fire calls within the city limits, which cover nearly seven miles. Since Sagle’s response area is 164 square miles, the automatic aid would be limited to the south side of the Pend Oreille River and the U.S. Highway 95 corridor to Huckleberry Mountain in Careywood.

For other emergency call-outs, such as motor vehicle collisions, Sagle and Sandpoint would rely on their existing mutual aid agreement.

Although both agencies would be summoned at the same time, Goodyear and Sandpoint Fire Chief Robert Tyler emphasize that if additional manpower and equipment are clearly not needed, the backup would be called off.

“That’s an essential philosophy of the fire service,” Tyler said.