West Pierce Fire & Rescue, which serves suburbs southwest of Tacoma, Washington, says a cybersecurity incident has disrupted its information systems, knocking out email and nonemergency phone lines while 911 and emergency response continue operating.
The district reported Dec. 12 that it is responding to a disruption of its information systems caused by a “cybersecurity incident” affecting key internal technology used by the agency.
The district said it does not have access to some systems, including department email and nonemergency telephone lines, and asked residents to reach out through its official Facebook page while the outage continues.
Fire suppression, emergency medical services and the 911 system remain “fully operational” and are not disrupted by the incident, according to the department.
Upon detecting what it described as unauthorized access, the agency’s information technology team “acted immediately” and is working with the FBI and outside forensic experts to analyze its systems, restore access and determine next steps. Officials have not said what kind of cyberattack it is or whether ransomware is involved, what data or systems were accessed, or whether any personal information was compromised. District officials did not respond to requests for additional comment.
A separate social media notice told residents the department’s phone system was down but stressed that the 911 system was unaffected, underscoring that emergency calls should continue to be made to 911 as usual.
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The contact page for the agency, which serves the cities of Lakewood and University Place and the town of Steilacoom in Pierce County, reiterates that as of Dec. 11 the district lacks access to email and office numbers and directs nonemergency questions to Facebook messaging.
West Pierce Fire & Rescue was formed in 2011 through the merger of the Lakewood and University Place fire departments and now covers about 31 square miles and more than 100,000 residents.
Washington public agencies have wrestled with a series of high-impact cyber incidents over the past year. The Pierce County Library System in Tacoma recently confirmed that an April 2025 intrusion became a data breach affecting more than 340,000 patrons, employees and family members after hackers copied personal, financial and medical details from its network.
Education systems have also been hit. Highline Public Schools in south King County closed schools for three days after a September 2024 ransomware attack and later disclosed that intruders had accessed files containing Social Security numbers, academic records and health data for students, staff and families.
Critical infrastructure has not been spared. The Port of Seattle spent weeks restoring systems at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after an August 2024 Rhysida ransomware attack that disrupted baggage, ticketing and passenger information systems and was later found to have exposed personal data for about 90,000 employees and contractors, even as officials said travel remained safe.
In October 2024, the district announced a planned network outage that temporarily took phone lines offline for maintenance, according to a Facebook post. That event was not described as a security issue. State and county emergency management guidance has urged local governments and 911 partners to plan for cyber incidents that could affect dispatch and alert systems, reflecting broader concern about digital risks to public safety agencies.
The district has not provided a restoration timeline or details on potential data exposure but has pledged to post updates as more information becomes available.
