City answers questions about new fire department

By Tyler Ferrari,
City of Canyon Lake Management Analyst

The City of Canyon Lake continues to make significant progress with the start-up of a new Fire Department, and remains on-track for a January 1 launch date.

Over the past few weeks, the City has received a number of questions from the community about the new Fire Department. While many of these questions have been addressed in previous updates, Interim Fire Chief Jeff LaTendresse is committed to maintaining open and continual communication with the community throughout this process. In that spirit, below are his responses to the more common questions the City has received.

What will be the staffing for the Fire Department?

The new Fire Department will have 12 full-time employees. There will be a Fire Chief, a Battalion Chief, three Fire Captains, three Fire Engineers, and three Firefighter/Paramedics.

In addition, the Fire Department intends to hire a cadre of Reserve Firefighters and is looking into a Paid-Call Firefighter Program. Daily staffing at the Fire Station will be one Fire Captain, one Fire Engineer, one Firefighter/Paramedic, and one Reserve Firefighter, for a total staffing of four personnel per day.

This will be different from the current staffing at Station 60. Currently, there is only a single Fire Captain assigned to Station 60, and he is on duty only three or four days per week. Also, Riverside County Fire/Cal Fire does not utilize Reserve Firefighters at this station on a regular basis, so daily staffing should be increased by one.

It should be noted that minimum staffing for the new Fire Department will be three personnel, as it is now. While we plan to have four or more personnel on staff at any given time, there may be days when a Reserve Firefighter is not on-duty.

Will the Fire Department provide Paramedic service?

The new Fire Department will have Advanced Life Support (ALS) equipment on the primary engine and on the reserve engine. In addition, there will be at least three Paramedics in the Department with a minimum of one on duty each day.

In addition, in the salary schedule approved by the City Council, if a Fire Captain or a Fire Engineer is also a Paramedic, they will receive additional compensation for that skill. Thus, it is likely that more than one paramedic will be on shift at any given time.

Finally, by having two complete sets of ALS equipment, the City will be able to staff a second engine for special events that occur in the City, such as the 4th of July and other holidays.

The City is working with the Riverside County Emergency Medical Services Agency (REMSA) to ensure it meets all the requirements to be an ALS provider. Meetings, conversations, and emails have been exchanged between the City and REMSA.

The application to be an EMS provider has been submitted to REMSA and is currently under review. The City has reached out to a medical director and is still exploring options for medical oversight of our program. This is a requirement, and the City will be in compliance.

Why did the City buy a Type VI fire engine when there is not one currently at the station?

Prior to the City Council’s final decision to form a municipal fire department, it contracted with Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI) to prepare a feasibility analysis on how the new Fire Department, if initiated, should be designed and staffed.

This report, along with supplemental research and meetings with regional leaders, is what the City Council used to make its decision to form a new Fire Department. In this report, ESCI recommended that in addition to a new Type I structural fire engine, a Type VI wildland fire engine should be purchased.

As the fire station sits adjacent to approximately 800 acres of BLM open space land, it was determined that a response vehicle was needed. While there is not currently a Type VI at the station, Riverside County Fire/Cal Fire does have off-road capability at other fire stations. The City purchased this apparatus so we could respond to wildland and remote rescue incidents within City limits.

Additionally, this vehicle was upgraded and has a larger fire pump so that it can be used to support structure fire operations if needed. This vehicle will not be staffed every day. Its staffing will come from the primary engine at the station, or from supplemental staffing (i.e. Reserve or Paid-Call Firefighters) when an incident occurs in the BLM area or other hard-to-reach areas of the City. This concept is called “cross-staffing” and is very common in the fire service.

Why is there no Chief Officer on duty 24/7 like we currently have?

The new Fire Department will have two Chief Officers, one Fire Chief and one Battalion Chief. They will staff Fire Administration Monday through Friday and be available for immediate response to an incident.

After hours, one of these Chief Officers will always be on-call as the Duty Officer and will be in a position to respond as needed. This is a requirement the City wanted to ensure and is common practice for smaller fire agencies.

We believe this is an improvement over what we have under our current contract with the County, as currently no Chief Officers are specifically assigned to Station 60.

Will response times change with the new Fire Department?

In addition to providing increased staffing and equipment out of Station 60, the City is also in the process of discussing and negotiating Automatic Aid and Mutual Aid Agreements with a number of surrounding agencies.

The details of those negotiations remain confidential at this point as they are ongoing, but more information will become available as agreements are finalized.

The City is committed to providing an exceptionally-high level of service, and will not settle for long response times. Keeping in mind that Canyon Lake averages just 2.1 calls for service per day within City boundaries, this is a very manageable workload for a single-station department.

Yet, we know there will be times when we will need help from our neighbors. This is true for all but the largest of fire departments. Even Cal Fire calls for mutual aid on occasion. The City will enter into agreements that ensure outside help will be there when needed.

What will happen when there is a need for specialized resources?

What will happen when there is a need for specialized resources, such as truck companies, hazardous material units, swift water rescue, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams, arson investigators, etc.?

As with the previous question, some of these units may be included in Automatic Aid and Mutual Aid Agreements. Until those agreements are formalized, we cannot go into the specifics of how this will be handled.

The City does understand that some specialized units may need to be requested on a “fee for hire” basis, meaning that you pay for them when you use them. For hazardous materials incidents, the responsible party is also typically held responsible to cover the costs.

The City may have to front the costs and then work for reimbursement after the incident is over. These types of incidents are exceedingly rare in Canyon Lake.

How will you meet the “2 in 2 out” requirement on a house fire?

There is a Cal OSHA law that is commonly referred to as the Respiratory Protection Act. There are many components of this law. and it is the new Fire Department’s intent to meet all of the requirements, including fit testing and medical exams.

The “2 in 2 out” component of this law states that when two individuals go into an Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) environment, then there must be two additional individuals with equipment to perform a rescue if needed.

There is an exception to this law on an emergency scene if there is a known potential rescue of a person inside. In these instances, a two-person crew can make entry without having two people outside. In this scenario a three-person engine company can make a rescue attempt.

Also, the new Fire Department should have four personnel on-duty each day, in addition to any Automatic Aide or Mutual Aide response. The response is really no different than it is today, except that the City’s Fire Department will have the added resources of Reserve Firefighters and possibly Paid-Call Firefighters.

Will there be background checks for the employees?

The hiring process for the new Fire Department will be very similar, if not identical, to many other fire departments in Southern California. The City will be utilizing a national company to conduct the testing for the Firefighter/Paramedics and the Reserve Firefighters.

All will need to have completed a California basic fire academy. There will be an oral interview with a paramedic skills assessment. A medical exam and background investigation, by a third-party investigative firm, will also be conducted.

What kind of protection will the fire department employees have?

What kind of protection will the fire department employees have for medical, discipline, and working conditions since they will not have union representation?

The issue of unionization has come up several times (mostly from union firefighters working in other departments). The City’s decision to break away from County Fire/Cal Fire was in no way an anti-union move. Should the employees of the City’s new Fire Department decide to unionize, the City will welcome collective bargaining.

In addition, from the outset, the City will have strong policy manuals that will explain the discipline, grievance, and other processes that may occur. In 2007, the State of California passed the Firefighters Bill of Rights, which clearly defines the rights of all firefighters. Those rights will apply to the new Fire Department, and the City will absolutely respect them.

What will the salaries be for the Fire Department?

The budget for the new Fire Department has been presented to the City Council. All costs associated with salaries and benefits are identified in the budget, which is available for viewing by any member of the public.

The City looks forward to continue to provide these monthly updates, not just to the City Council, but to the entire community so they can be apprised of the progress as the new Fire Department continues to develop.