By Roger H. Aylworth
Oroville Mercury-Register
BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. — Butte County has a good, dedicated fire department, but it is a department with needs that will have to be addressed.
That’s the conclusion of a seven-month long review, “Standards of Response Cover Study,” that was presented to the Butte County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
Stewart Gary, fire principle planner of Citygate Associates of Folsom, that conducted the study, told the board the county is blessed with a top-flight fire department.
He also said, in general terms the county fire stations are relatively well-located to respond to most fires.
However, the department is facing problems and the supervisors will be called upon make decisions on what sort of fire service it wants in the future.
One of the future challenges will be the county’s 19 volunteer fire companies.
Gary said the department is heavily dependent on those fire companies to provide protection, particularly in the more rural areas, and the volunteers have done a positive job.
The problem is there are 405 authorized slots for volunteer firefighters in the 19 companies, but “on paper” there are a total of 184 volunteers in service. On any given emergency only a percentage of those will be available to respond.
Gary said the problem is made worse because as of 2004, California requires all volunteers have the same 80 to 120 hours of training required of professional firefighters, before they can even go to an emergency.
He explained in an era of two-income families, the pool of physically fit individuals who are willing to give up that much time for the good of the community is shrinking.
These factors have a direct impact on the combat nature of firefighting, according to the consultant.
Like troops in war, the arithmetic of firefighting requires a certain critical mass of personnel and equipment arriving at the fire in a certain amount of time.
Too few firefighters, no matter how quickly they arrive, will lose the battle. A large enough force that arrives too slowly will find the fire has gotten out of hand before they had a chance to fight it.
Gary said this equation is something the supervisors should decide.
At present the county has no official standard for fire response time.
Gary explained there is an urban response schedule, such as the City of San Francisco might offer, where firefighters can see the next station down the street.
In this sort of situation the standard in a residential fire is to be there quick enough, with enough staff and equipment, to limit the fire to the room of origin.
A suburban level of response would limit the spread of the fire to the area of origin. A rural response level would be to keep the fire in the residence from extending to adjacent structures.
Gary said the county officials should also think about gradually increasing staffing from the current two firefighters per engine to three.
He also said more stations will be needed in the future.
For example, he said there will be a time when it would make sense to keep the existing county fire stations in south Chico on Mulberry Street and in north Chico on Fremont Street as volunteer stations, while putting other stations farther from Chico to be staffed by career firefighters.
Gary said all such proposals are obviously dependent on funding.
The board officially “accepted” the report, but took no action on its recommendations. It will be brought back eventually for further consideration.
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