By Lisa P. White
The Contra Costa Times
CONTRA COSTA, Calif. — In the old days, when a fire erupted in rural Alhambra Valley, volunteer firefighters and neighbors would rush to the scene to snuff the flames.
But times have changed, and state regulations governing firefighters’ training and certification have made volunteering more costly and time consuming.
As a result, only two volunteer fire stations remain in the Contra Costa Fire District — No. 19 in Briones and No. 18 in Clyde.
About 10 on-call volunteers, also known as reserves, are assigned to Station No. 19, which houses an engine, a brush unit and a water tender.
In 2008, the fire district told Alhambra Valley residents it would increase training and support for the station, but the recession derailed those plans, said Chief Darryl Louder.
That doesn’t sit well with some residents like Hetty Dutra, who runs a horse-boarding business on 360 acres in the valley. Dutra believes the fire district is purposely neglecting the volunteer program with an eye toward closing the station.
At a meeting Saturday with Louder, Dutra and her neighbors plan to tell him they want to keep the volunteers.
“I personally want our little volunteer fire department, I’d much rather have it because I know they know who I am and if I’m in trouble, even if they hate my guts, they’re going to show up,” Dutra said.
Louder says the station isn’t closing. In fact, he said the district is committing to send a unit to the Briones station once or twice a month to train the volunteers so they can provide initial emergency medical care to vehicle and bicycle accident victims.
Louder says he also wants volunteers to be first responders at structure fires, stabilizing the scene and containing the blaze until firefighters arrive from Martinez, Lafayette or Orinda. But they wouldn’t be allowed to enter buildings, he added.
“We want them to be a valuable asset, but we do want to limit their scope of work to something that’s sustainable,” Louder said.
ConFire allocates $17,200 per year to cover rent, utilities, maintenance and other costs for the Briones station, according to Louder. The district spends about $10,800 to cover stipends and $6,300 for services and supplies to support both the Briones and Clyde volunteer programs.
Although the Pinole Fire Department recently closed the station that covered unincorporated Tara Hills and the Alhambra Valley, ConFire still has a contract with Pinole for service, Louder said. He also noted that CalFire is responsible for tackling grass fires in a large part of the valley. Still, Dutra wonders if maybe the neighbors wouldn’t be better off if they pulled their tax dollars out of the fire district.
“I’m the most radical of all the people out here, and I just think we should become a charter community and run our own fire station like we did before we were annexed,” she said.
But Louder pointed out that in addition to the money to run the Briones station, the fire district also pays for the training academy, fleet maintenance, communications, administration and other costs.
“It’s not just a fire station sitting out there by itself, it takes all these other moving parts to make the system work and it takes money,” Louder said. “Station No. 19 is part of a much bigger system.”
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