The Orange County Register
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — If there’s a major disaster, officials at the Orange County Fire Authority might have trouble getting all their firefighters to return quickly to their stations.
That’s because some active members of the department live in Colorado, Utah, Texas, Illinois and Washington state.
OCFA Engineer Lloyd Pinel, for example, would have to wait for the next available flight from Third Lake, Ill. The 21-year veteran’s home is a 30-minute drive from Lake Michigan but more than a three-hour flight from his station in Buena Park.
With more than 2,000 miles between his home and place of work, Pinel has the longest commute of any OCFA firefighter.
Without any official restrictions on where they live, 37 percent of OCFA firefighters list their primary residence outside Orange County — with many living in the Inland Empire.
In typical driving conditions with traffic, 10 percent of OCFA personnel can expect to drive more than two hours to reach their stations, according to personnel records requested and reviewed by The Orange County Register. The review also found that among their 821-member department, six captains and three engineers live outside California.
Some local officials are concerned at how quickly personnel could respond to a major emergency.
There are also budgetary concerns. Firefighters who live far away could adjust their shifts to minimize the amount of time they spend commuting and increasing the amount of overtime they get.
OCFA officials say residency requirements would not make sense, adding that requiring firefighters to live in Orange County would hamper recruiting efforts. Other large departments, such as the Los Angeles Fire Department, don’t have residency requirements and also employ firefighters living outside the state.
Outside California
Of the nine firefighters who live outside California, many have chosen communities with large lots and lower home prices.
Capt. Jeffrey Hoey, a 21-year veteran of the OCFA, lives in Bellingham, Wash., in a house surrounded by acres of woods and grassy open spaces. Located about 90 miles north of Seattle, Hoey’s home is about a 30-minute drive from Bellingham International Airport - about the same time it would take him to reach the U.S.-Canadian border.
It’s a 1,200-mile commute to his fire station in Mission Viejo.
Messages and attempts to reach Pinel, Hoey and five other firefighters who live outside the state went unanswered. But two out-of-state firefighters did agree to discuss their situations.
Capt. Paul Ravize, a 27-year veteran stationed in Yorba Linda, makes a 3 1/2-hour drive from his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas.
Since moving to Nevada, Ravize said he’s never been called back for an emergency. During the last major fires, he was already in Orange County.
“If it’s going to happen, I’m going to be there,” he says.
With retirement looming, Ravize says he and his wife decided to invest in a home in Las Vegas: “I would not do it if I had 20 years left in the department.”
He doesn’t mind the 248-mile commute.
“It’s therapeutic,” he says. “Never thought twice about it. If I had to rearrange my schedule, catch flights, I wouldn’t do it.”
Ravize says he can get to work faster than colleagues who must battle congested freeways.
“Maybe I can get there faster than some of the guys living in the Inland Empire who get stuck on the 91,” he says.
Capt. Daniel Colgan, a 23-year veteran who is stationed in Irvine and lives in Queen Creek, Ariz., says even though he lives outside California, he is available.
“I probably am available to work more than most people,” he says. “I suppose there are times when I’m not that close, but I’m usually near work.”
Residency rules
OCFA is not the only firefighting agency without residency requirements. The Santa Ana Fire Department and the San Diego County Fire Authority, for example, don’t have restrictions.
“We see the value (of residency requirements), but we (would be) losing great candidates,” says Capt. Stephen Ruda of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Several departments in years past required employees to live in the jurisdiction they served, but the requirements were either altered or dropped. Santa Ana fire Capt. Chris Caswell says the department at one time required firefighters to live within the city. The requirement was changed to within 30 miles of City Hall and eventually dropped altogether.
The state constitution prohibits cities from requiring employees to live within their borders, but it does give them leeway in requiring some to live within a certain distance.
“We could, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for a larger department such as us,” says Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion.
It’s a sentiment shared by OCFA Chief Keith Richter, who points to the agency’s 800-plus fire suppression force.
“We have a lot more human resources here,” Richter says. “It’s not very often we have a large-scale recall, but if we did have that situation, we feel that we have the system in place where we can do that fairly readily.”
Fiscal concerns
Villa Park Councilman Brad Reese, who serves on the OCFA board of directors, says he is not only concerned with the inability of firefighters to get to their stations quickly, but with the amount of overtime firefighters may be racking up to avoid lengthy commutes.
Firefighters may work 24-hour shifts nine to 11 days a month, and some might adjust their shifts to avoid the commute, Reese says.
“OT is just a common thing you’re used to,” says Reese, who used to volunteer as a reserve firefighter. “This is 24-hour OT. They may make a lot of money doing that.”
Ravize, the Las Vegas resident, says he sometimes strings his shifts together, but it doesn’t always translate to overtime.
“Sometimes, I’m working (someone’s) shift,” Ravize says. “I may be filling in for a guy who wants a day off for his kid’s birthday or something. It’s not always overtime.”
There are opportunities for firefighters to link their shifts and receive overtime, Richter says, but there are limits in place.
Firefighters are restricted to 96 continual hours of work on a volunteer basis.
“Because of those constraints, I don’t think they would be at the top of the heap, based on the fact they would have to travel so far to pick up an extra shift of overtime,” Richter says. “If they are working in Tombstone (Ariz.), it’s a long commute to try to get back for a 24-hour overtime shift.”
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