CVFPD: Fire Chief Sidney Reade is resigning

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

CVFPD: Fire Chief Sidney Reade is resigning

Carmel Valley Fire Protection District chief Sidney Reade is resigning.

She has served as chief for the last 10 years and been a member of the fire service for 32, reports the Monterey County Herald. She did not explain her decision to resign, but plans to continue to volunteer with Carmel Valley's Angel Project and work as an instructor. She will stay on for the next 90 days.

"I'm not the kind who can ever let this go," she told the paper. "It's actually quite difficult to let go. I just feel stretched really thin, and I want to be able to really put a lot more detail into my work and not feel spread in so many directions. I have a passion for what I do, and sometimes that's just not enough."

Reade started her career as an employee of Quail Lodge in the early 1970s, assisting its owner in forming the Mid-Carmel Valley Fire District in 1976, when she also became a volunteer firefighter. She was instrumental in consolidating departments, forming and managing the Carmel Regional Fire Ambulance service, establishing a one-year paramedic course at Monterey Peninsula College, and beginning a community safety program in the 1980s with a campaign to have property owners clear brush around their homes to prevent them from being destroyed in a wildland fire, which has since branched into schools and neighborhood groups.

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008