Everett officials received a midproject update on Nov. 5, 2025, on a city-funded “standard of cover” and community risk assessment that will map the Everett Fire Department’s service performance and recommend deployment and response targets, a consultant said.

Chief Dave DeMarco, Everett fire chief, told the Community Health and Safety Council Committee that city council allocated funds this year for a standard-of-cover development process. “Standard of cover is, essentially a snapshot of the fire department’s performance,” DeMarco said, describing the study as a tool for measuring performance against adopted standards and for answering questions about how future development would affect emergency response.

Madison, a representative of Dark Horse Emergency, the Canadian public-safety software and consulting firm contracted for the work, summarized the project’s methods and goals. “We are honored to be here to discuss the Everett Fire Department standard of cover and community risk assessment project with you,” Madison said. Dark Horse said it has cleaned and analyzed five years of the department’s computer-aided-dispatch data, overlaid incident data with demographic, infrastructure and environmental datasets, and is modeling future population and development to forecast response performance.

Dark Horse said the contract team is about 50% through the project and expects to deliver a final report in late January or early February 2026. The firm also described an interactive, geo-driven analytics platform used to support the analysis; Dark Horse said continued access to that platform would require a separate subscription contract after the advisory project concludes.

Council members pressed consultants on several technical questions. Committee members asked whether the “standard of cover” is purely geographic; Dark Horse said it includes both geographic mapping (where response occurs) and metric-based analysis (station responses, apparatus responses, time spent on calls). The consultants said they will benchmark performance against NFPA standards where appropriate and will use parcel-level planning forecasts (the city’s planning data can be modeled to 2044) to test how projected growth may change service demand and travel times.

Consultants also described a collaborative process intended to reduce bias: biweekly check-ins with the fire department, union and city staff; station visits; and community-risk tours. “The transparency behind our process is hopefully helps mitigate bias,” one consultant said, describing iterative engagement to validate findings.

The report’s likely deliverables include a community risk profile showing where incident probability and consequence concentrate, recommended response performance targets, analyses of resource distribution and deployment options, and scenario modeling for future growth. The chief and council will retain authority to select the performance targets the city wishes to adopt; Dark Horse will provide evidence and simulation showing how resource changes would affect those targets.

The committee expects the consultant to return with a finished document in early 2026. The final report will be used to inform strategic planning for station siting, staffing, equipment and potential procurement decisions.