Comments on: Idyllwild Fire and San Jacinto proposing joint fire agency

By: Scott Fisher

Scott Fisher — Mon, 16 May 2016 20:12:17 +0000

Bill
I have seen many Fire Departments across the West Coast try to create their own Department and fail after spending large amounts of money.
The average salary of 100,000 includes pension benefits and health care costs when you average in the rank of Fire Fighter, Paramedic, Lieutenant, Captain and Chief Officer I think you will find that $100,000 is low. The apparatus costs are also low and yes if the city that is leaving a jurisdiction and has paid for an Engine, Truck or Ambulance they would get those but typically they merge their funds when purchasing apparatus and when a city leaves a jurisdiction they get a percentage of what they have actually spent on apparatus. They would then have to buy the Rest of the needed equipment . I also cannot believe that any city fleet mechanic could repair or work on a Fire Engine,Truck or Ambulance.
Yes jurisdictions do have mutual agreements but I have never seen a fire department provide mutual aid to support an entire Incident Command structure.
Fire Departments are unique with special training needs and most cities are unable to provide the HR support that a Fire Department requires and the state mandates
I have never worked at Cal Fire and I do not even know anyone who works there. I was not trying to be negative just trying to make Citizens understand what goes into creating a Fire Department and the risks and liabilities.

By: Bill Jones

Bill Jones — Sat, 14 May 2016 08:18:18 +0000

Scott, I find it interesting that without much insight to the process you can throw out these large dollar values as if you had experience in these matters. By creating an expectation of such expensive costs, you immediately create a negative outcome to this process. Your comments give the impression that you are in fact directly involved with the fire service, possibly as a firefighter. The fact of the matter is, Cal Fire has bullied most of the small cities in Riverside Country for the better part of the last decade, annually raising their contracts even as cities were forced to cut services. You are correct when you say the initial cost to “start” a department is high, thus most cities are beholden to their current life safety providers. What most people do not understand is most of the contract cities already own the fire apparatus and stations, saving the Millions of dollars already mentioned. The support facilities are already in place (city fleet, city IT, Human Resources, etc) so the financial impact is minimal. As far as the numbers you have thrown out for salaries, 100k annual salary across the ranks is very unlikely. Based on the way “this” story reads, this type of department structure is becoming more common in California. By sharing the “overhead” cost such as Chief Officers and Administrative personnel cities can provide these services to their citizens while maintaining local control of the costs. As for the ability to respond appropriately to all emergencies, I’m sure that there will be Automatic Aid agreements in place.

By: Scott Fisher

Scott Fisher — Fri, 13 May 2016 22:56:17 +0000

Wow what an absolutely stupid idea. Let’s add the costs of starting our brand new Fire Department. One Fire Engine with equipment costs upwards of 1 million dollars. You need at least two. You will also need at least 8 Fire fighters per day running 3 shifts that is 24 Fire Fighter positions each position with benefits costs a minimum 100,000 a year that amounts to 2.4 million dollars. Let’s not forget the required state mandated Fire Training, Diversity Training and Human Resource requirements let’s say that costs another 200,000 a year. Wait let’s not forget fuel, maintenance and insurance let’s low ball that cost at 250,000 a year we have not even started talking about management supervision on the entire incident command structure that needs to be run within a close distance from your stations and the emergency scene.
Due to the costs of personnel,equipment,liability issues and state required training Fire Departments have a large support staff. I don’t see it.I wonder what’s really going to happen? I also wonder if the governments involved understand how large of a liability they are getting ready to sign up for.