Fire and emergency medical service response times in southern
Santa Clara County would not necessarily improve with the addition
of a new station, according to the latest phase of an ongoing study
to consider ways to enhance local services without raising
costs.
Fire and emergency medical service response times in southern Santa Clara County would not necessarily improve with the addition of a new station, according to the latest phase of an ongoing study to consider ways to enhance local services without raising costs.
From 2005 to 2008, the three agencies that serve South County from eight stations responded to about 80 percent of emergency calls in six minutes or less, according to data that will be presented to the Morgan Hill City Council Wednesday.
The latest findings in the study that will next look at the possibility of regionalizing fire and EMS services, also indicate that the three existing agencies already act regionally to an extent.
“The service providers already operate in an interdependent manner because of the level of resources within the region and mutual and automatic aid agreements,” said Steve Rymer, Morgan Hill Director of Community Services, and member of the joint committee conducting the study.
The city of Morgan Hill is served by the Central Fire District, under contract with Santa Clara County Fire Department. In June, the council renewed that contract at a cost of about $5.295 million for fiscal year 2009/10. That price reflects about $50,000 in cuts from last year, mainly in staffing levels and the battalion chief’s compensation.
The contract was extended through June 30, 2014, with the total contract price increasing by 2.5 percent each year. Revenues for Morgan Hill’s fire and EMS services are generated from about $200,000 in building inspection fees, and about $5.1 million in local property and sales taxes, Rymer said.
Either agency may terminate the contract with a one-year written notice.
Unincorporated areas of South County are served by the South Santa Clara County Fire Department, and the city of Gilroy has its own fire department.
Due to increasing interest among officials of all three agencies and jurisdictions to consolidate or regionalize fire and EMS services, in May a committee consisting of representatives of each entity was formed to study the issue.
The latest phase of the study, completed Sept. 2, looked at whether or not a new fire station is necessary to improve response times, and where such a station should be.
“The committee has determined that fire station locations are in the right place,” and no new stations will be needed anytime soon, said Chief Steven Woodill of the South Santa Clara Fire District.
Furthermore, the study said the areas where most future development in Morgan Hill is expected are adequately covered within 6-minute response times of existing stations. In the city of Gilroy, which has three fire stations, future development in the southern part of town could eventually require a fourth station, the study found.
And the possibility of growing call volume in the future could require additional resources from neighboring stations, and that could increase response times.
Separately, Central Fire and South County Fire Departments meet local goals for response times, while Gilroy Fire Department has fallen short in recent years. And none of the agencies meets national fire response time standards.
The National Fire Protection Association code 1710 suggests that fire departments nationwide should be able to respond to 90 percent of their calls in five minutes or less.
Central Fire responds to 95 percent of all calls in eight minutes or less, and to 90 percent of calls in seven minutes or less. Deputy Chief Don Jarvis of Central Fire explained the NFPA standard is voluntary, and has not been adopted by Morgan Hill. To meet the standards of NFPA 1710 would require “very significant costs” related to more fire stations, more fire engines, and more staff, Jarvis said.
“In terms of response times for the first arriving unit, the performance standards in the fire protection master plan for the city of Morgan Hill are being met,” Jarvis said.
The South County Fire District, which contracts with Calfire for personnel and equipment, increases the average for the three departments because it mostly serves rural areas that are farther away from existing stations, according to Woodill. In developed areas, the department responds to 90 percent of calls in eight minutes or less; for rural emergencies, it responds to 90 percent of calls in 12 minutes or less, according to data compiled in the study.
“You want to have all your resources there within 10 to 12 minutes, but in some areas that’s physically impossible, (for example) if you live out by Uvas (Reservoir),” Woodill said.
The current year’s budget for the South County Fire District is about $4.1 million, and is funded by property tax revenues totaling about $4.5 million. Woodill said the annual surplus allows the district to purchase a new fire engine every five years.
The Gilroy Fire Department has a local goal that matches the NFPA standard of reaching 90 percent of calls within five minutes, but Chief Dale Foster said the agency does not meet that standard.
The department averages reaching 70 percent of its calls within five minutes, and 90 percent of calls in seven minutes or less, Foster said.
The city of Gilroy has not adopted NFPA 1710 as its guiding standard either.
The study committee will next consider a hypothetical “boundaries drop” approach to fire service, in which the closest engines, ambulances and personnel respond to each emergency, regardless of jurisdictional, city or fire district limits, Woodill explained.
Some committee members’ initial impressions are that this approach to service is favorable to the existing structure.
“We’ve always been in favor of the closest-available-resources concept. The old adage is, ‘The person having the emergency doesn’t care what color the fire engines are that show up,'” Woodill said.
Foster said such a regional approach makes sense as a way to improve service with existing resources, but it remains to be seen how the idea would be received by the local governing bodies, employee bargaining units, and other political hurdles.
“The devil is in the details,” Foster said.
