The County Board of Supervisors has renewed its long-standing contract with Cal Fire and put in an order for some specialized fire equipment, too.
County Fire Chief John Owens in late February, asked Supervisors to renew a contract the County has had with the State for over 90 years.
Chief Owen’s report said Cal Fire “has provided fire protection and related services to the County of San Luis Obispo through a series of annual agreements since 1930. The services provided include emergency medical response, structural and vehicle fire suppression, hazardous materials spill mitigation, aircraft rescue and firefighting, and technical and confined space rescue.”
The contract covers some 16 fire stations spread out over SLO County’s 3,200 square miles, the report said. These fire stations include nine County-owned facilities; one Los Osos Community Services District-owned facility; one Heritage Ranch Homeowners Association-owned facility; and five State-owned facilities.”
Staffing at the stations varies. “Fourteen of the stations are staffed seven days per week with full-time staff,” Owens’ report said. “Morro-Toro Station 14 [located on Hwy 41 between Morro Bay and Atascadero] and Oak Shores Station 34 remain volunteer stations, with Paid Call Firefighters responding to incidents, supported by full-time staff from other stations.
Two stations, Cambria Station 10 and Shandon Station 51, are staffed under what is known as an Amador Plan, where the State pays staffing costs during fire season and the County pays staffing costs during non-fire season.”
The new contract is for just 1 year but tops $30.94 million, which is a $3.69M increase from the Fiscal Year 2023-24 contract. The new pact has several significant changes, including:
• New labor agreement with a conversion to a 66-hour work week from a 72-hour work week.
• New Cal Fire staffing standards, as well as new and refined Cal Fire State fire station staffing for peak and base time frames;
• Addition of four fire captains, which will upgrade five engines to a 3.0 staffing factor at a 2.0 staffing level;
• Amador: Change in Amador staffing to six Firefighter I positions at three months each for 18 personnel months from the previous 10 Firefighter I positions for six months each for 60 personnel months;
• Add three Firefighter II positions using the leftover 42 personnel months from the Firefighter I positions to upgrade one engine company to a 3.0 staffing factor at a 3.0 staffing level.
• Upgrade of an Administrative Officer II to a Staff Services Manager I;
• Los Osos Fire Station: Addition of one Fire Apparatus Engineer, which raises the staffing levels of the Los Osos CSD fire station to a 3.0 staffing factor, as well as upgrading an Office Technician to an Associate Governmental Program Analyst.
• Avila Fire Station: Addition of one Fire Captain to the Avila Beach CSD fire station;
• Airport Fire Station: Addition of two Fire Captains and one Fire Apparatus Engineer to the San Luis Obispo Regional Airport Fire Station; and,
• State negotiated salary and benefit increases, partially offset by a 1-time reduced benefit rate.
Included in Cal Fire’s services are agreements with the Los Osos and Avila CSDs; the airport; and covers costs for Cal Fire Dispatch to handle emergency fire calls for Cambria, Morro Bay, San Miguel, Santa Margarita, Templeton, Atascadero, and the Five Cities Fire Authority (covering South County). Those costs are offset by contract payments from the contracting cities and agencies.
While the new contract is for over $30M, the County has only budgeted the fire services at $28.95M. Some $4.65M of the contract costs will come from the contracts with other agencies, Owens’ report said, and the financial hit to the County’s General Fund budget tops $26.29M.
The budget also gets money from Prop. 172 Sales Taxes, fees and “other revenue sources.”
But the Cal Fire contract only covers 92% of the overall costs for County Fire. There are also “non-contract expenditures” like training, equipment, stipends for on-call firefighters, facility rentals, maintenance and utilities, and raises the overall budget to over $33.62M.
And speaking of equipment, Deputy Fire Chief Josh Taylor’s report asked Supervisors to approve purchase of new rescue and firefighting vehicles, some of which passed their useful life expectancy over a decade ago.
“County Fire,” Dep. Chief Taylor said, “has multiple apparatus and equipment needing to be replaced dating back to as early as Fiscal Year 2010/2011. The performance of these apparatus and pieces of equipment has exceeded their life expectancy and while the agency has been able to assume normal operations, the cost to maintain these items is no longer feasible and it would be more efficient to replace them.”
Two major pieces of equipment — the Incident Support Unit and Heavy Rescue vehicles — “have had significant repairs which made them unavailable while they are repaired. In fact, the Heavy Rescue has been unavailable for the past five months with no timetable to be repaired. The fire boat, squad, cameras, and acoustic devices due to be replaced, however replacement was deferred by County Fire.”
Their Incident Support Unit no longer meets standards from CAL-OSHA. “CAL OSHA General Order 3395,” Dep. Chief Taylor said, “mandates that shade be provided when temperatures exceed 82 degrees. Additionally, the replacement of the Incident Support Unit would put County Fire in compliance where it is not presently.”
The Heavy Rescue, aka “toolbox on wheels,” is a truck that carries all the equipment needed for specialized rescue operations beyond basic firefighting. They carry equipment for technical rescues like hydraulic tools for extricating crash victims; confined space rescues; rope rescues; and water rescues.
These units are often customized for the needs of the individual department. They don’t plan to buy a brand-new truck but will rehab the old one.
“The Heavy Rescue has exhibited both electrical and mechanical issues that have proven to be cost prohibitive to repair,” Taylor’s report said. “It has been out of service for over four months and is vital to our response to earthquakes, trench, and collapse-type rescues. We will be able to replace the cab and chassis for half the cost of a new rescue reutilizing the current build-up. Doing so will update the vehicle to current specifications and standards extending its useful life.”
And with the proliferation of lithium-ion battery-powered devices — from home energy systems, to electric cars and trucks to e-bikes — there’s also a need to update firefighting capabilities, because you can’t put out such a fire by pouring water on it.
“The increase in lithium-ion battery fires and incidents statewide,” the report said, “necessitates San Luis Obispo County Fire to purchase equipment and vehicles capable of responding to these specific types of incidents. County Fire intends to repurpose a Squad Rescue identified for replacement to become a Hazmat Support Unit outfitted with a Cold Cut Cobra.”
A Cold Cut Cobra is a specialized firefighting tool that uses ultra-high-pressure water mist to pierce through building materials and cool fire gases from a safe distance. Firefighters can fight a fire from safely outside the burning structure and reduce their exposure to flames, heat, smoke and toxic fumes common in such fires.
The fire department already has one of these gizmos and wants to buy a second one to have until a new Hazmat Support Unit arrives. Then it will put the Cobra on another truck and continue to have it in use.
The County also wants to replace the fire boat it has up at Lake Nacimiento. The current boat has been on a schedule to be replaced since 2011.
Money for all this is coming out of a special account — the Fire Equipment Replacement Designation Fund — that the County has been loading up for years in preparation for replacing firefighting equipment. That fund currently had over $15.55M.
These are expensive pieces of gear. The fire boat is budgeted at $550,000; $413,000 for a squad rescue truck at Oak Shores; $415,000 for a hazmat support vehicle; $1.84M for a new Incident Support Vehicle for Avila; $999,000 for a heavy rescue truck at the county airport; $28,000 for new search and rescue cameras; $21,000 for new rescue microphones; and $134,000 for two Cold Cut Cobra devices. The total in equipment tops $4.4M.
Taylor said they could have repaired the fireboat back in 2022 for $300,000, “making it more efficient now to replace rather than repair.”
That nearly $1 million for the Heavy Rescue truck would simply replace the chassis but “the County will save $750,000 of the cost of a new Heavy Rescue valued at approximately $1,750,000 dollars,” Dep. Chief Taylor said.
