San Diego County Regional Fire Authority formed

Sunday, November 23, 2008

San Diego County Regional Fire Authority formed

SAN DIEGO – A new regional fire authority that will protect more than 920,000 acres – about a third of the county – in the county's back country became official Wednesday.

The action by the Local Area Formation Commission, or LAFCO, will allow a newly created San Diego County Regional Fire Authority to oversee fire protection in a swath of rural East and North County.

The authority will cover about 50,000 people in an area now served by six volunteer agencies and Cal Fire. It will be paid for by $15.5 million that county supervisors set aside in June for fire protection.

The volunteer agencies will remain but will be better-funded and administered by a fire warden, a new position.

San Diego County is the most populous in the state without a regional fire department, and officials have worked for more than a decade to try to set up and find the money for a countywide agency. Officials tried to pass a $52-a-year parcel tax earlier this month to pay for a regional fire agency, but voters narrowly turned it down. The tax money would have been used to pay for firefighting aircraft, reserve engines and other regional equipment and divided among the county's fire agencies.

County officials said the authority can be formed although voters rejected the tax.

“It's taken a long time and it's been a tough road to get here,” said County Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

The fire authority is one of the first steps in the process of creating a countywide agency. Jacob said she hopes to expand the regional authority within the next two years to include other parts of the unincorporated county now served by rural fire districts. After that, urban areas served by fire departments would be included.

The agencies included in the authority are De Luz Heights, Intermountain Fire and Rescue, Ocotillo Wells, Ranchita Fire and Rescue, Shelter Valley and Sunshine Summit.

Cary Coleman, chief of Intermountain, which serves the Ramona area, said under the authority, the county can collect mitigation fees for fire protection from developers, unlike the volunteer agencies. With a regional authority, firefighters and equipment from all of the volunteer companies can be pooled together, he said.

“It's my hope that one day we'll all wear the same uniform and drive the same trucks. But for now we've got to take these small steps,” he said.

Source: Sign on San Diego - Link

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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.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Sunday, November 23, 2008