Boony Doon to get Cal Fire engine year-round

Friday, March 20, 2009

Boony Doon to get Cal Fire engine year-round

The Santa Cruz County Fire Department will spend $60,100 to move an engine company to Bonny Doon for year-round fire protection.

The Santa Cruz County Fire Department will spend $60,100 to move an engine company to Bonny Doon for year-round fire protection.

HOME BASE: It will cost the county about $60,000 to locate a Cal Fire engine at the McDermott Station, current home to the Bonny Doon Volunteer Fire Team. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner

Most of the sum will pay to install modular buildings next to the community’s McDermott Station in an effort to minimize the impact on Bonny Doon volunteer firefighters, who use the station at Empire Grade and Felton Empire roads as their headquarters.

A building to house the Cal Fire engine comes at an estimated cost of $40,500, while a modular office building will cost $2,100 and repairs to a house on the property that will serve as sleeping quarters will cost between $7,000 and $9,000.

The figures were contained in a staff report to county supervisors, who authorized the move at a Feb. 10 meeting. Funds will come from the existing County Fire budget.

Supervisors accepted a staff recommendation to use the McDermott Station instead of two other possible sites despite objections from Bonny Doon volunteers.

Price was a major consideration, as moving to the other Bonny Doon station on Martin Road would have cost $274,000, and using Cal Fire’s training center on Empire Grade Road would have cost $236,600, staffers reported.

However, the volunteers have pointed out that most of their driver-operators already live near McDermott and respond there, and volunteer morale could suffer because they would be considered second-tier responders.

The move is expected to take place before the beginning of the summer fire season.

Source: pressbanner.com - Link

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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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Friday, March 20, 2009