On Sept. 27, Hollister Fire Chief Bob Martin Del Campo warned the city council that if a second SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant did not materialize by the following Friday, he would most likely have to suspend 12 reserve firefighters. That grant was not received, and on Monday, Oct. 3, Del Campo had no choice but to deliver the bad news to the firefighters.
“I had most of them in my office and I let them know what was going on, and gave them their termination letters,” Del Campo said, “and I thanked them for their service.”
Even though the circumstance was somewhat solemn, he said the firefighters’ morale was high and they remained motivated.
“Everyone came away with 24 months of experience,” Del Campo said, “and I told them if there was any chance that I could keep one or all 12 of them I would call them back and we would move forward from there.”
Del Campo said he did not know if any of the 12 had been able to find firefighting jobs outside of the area, but he knew a few of them had side jobs in anticipation of being suspended. He said, however, that the firefighters aren’t waiting around to hear what might happen with the grant funding.
“Almost all of them have applications with other fire departments,” he said. “When an employer, like myself, is hiring and I see somebody coming from another department who was laid off because of financial constraints, I would probably pick them up because they already have the qualifications, the certificates, and if they have any additional skills, that makes them far more marketable.”
He said there is no reason why they would not be able to find employment because many older, experienced firefighters around the state are retiring.
“I think San Jose is going to be opening up 10 to 15 new positions,” the chief said. “Salinas, Monterey and Seaside all are hiring. I’d be lucky to get half of them back. If I’m told I can have six or seven, it’s going to be hard to get a lot of them back, especially if they’re already involved in background checks and the hiring process. It’s going to be tough.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 5, Del Campo met with city officials to discuss the fire department’s needs and how the city might meet them. He said he told officials that he hoped there would be a way to keep all 12 firefighters in order to continue providing service for the entire county.
“They’re going to take my numbers and assess what we have for finances in the budget, and if it’s sustainable for an indefinite period of time,” he said. “I think they’re going to take that to the council on Monday (Oct. 10) and put it through a study session.”
If the department is not able to keep all 12 firefighters, as expected, Del Campo said he needs to know as soon as possible how many he will be able to keep in order to determine how to staff his engines. At the moment, he said he has 26 full-time firefighters on the city payroll. There are two more firefighters who are being funded through the Panoche Valley Solar Project, which asked the city on Oct. 15, 2015, to hire two full-time firefighters, along with purchasing a wildland Type 6 fire engine. He said the agreement was to hire the people, train them and when the project was ready to go, the firefighters would be deployed to the site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The math is complicated when it comes to determining the numbers of firefighters per shift, per station. He said he has nine firefighters per shift and eight on the third shift to serve two cities and the county. They are divided into three firefighters for two shifts at Stations 1 and 2, for a total of six. North County, which will be serviced by the new Station 3 at Rosa Morada Road and Fairview Road, will have two firefighters, but they are presently co-located at Fire Station 1 until Station 3 is up and running. At Station 4, which is in San Juan Bautista, he said he has one firefighter for each of two shifts (on normal pay), and no one for the third shift. He said every day he has to call in one additional firefighter (on overtime pay) for the two shifts, and then two more (both on overtime) for the third shift.
When it comes to actually fighting fires, Del Campo said the minimum number of people who are supposed to show up at any structural fire is 15, along with a chief providing command support and resource management.
“The reason being, when firefighters enter the structure with the hose they have to have two more firefighters outside as backup to make sure those inside don’t go down,” he said. “There’s a lot of coordination when you’re fighting your basic residential fire. Everybody has their assignment, from forcible entry, an engineer who is pumping, people who are softening up the building, meaning they’re opening the doors and windows, a roof group that is ventilating the structure to release the hot gases and smoke.”
Except for Station 4, which will remain on standby at Mitchell Road, a single structure fire will pull three engines and seven to eight firefighters. Del Campo said that while the recommendation is 15, he will only be able to provide about half that number. But the situation only worsens if there are simultaneous fires, such as happened during the July 4 period, when calls start going out to bring in more firefighters who are off duty.
“We did call-backs three times that night and we got one full-time firefighter back,” he said. “After the second call-back, I called dispatch and asked them to get me an engine from Gilroy. They sent an engine with four firefighters.”
There has been talk of posting an engine with two firefighters at the Rosa Morada Road location, even without a fire station, but Del Campo said if they did, it would only be for short durations because of requirements for bathroom facilities and water availability.
“We’re thinking about that, but it might be a hard sell, because they have to be able to conduct training and do administrative work,” he said. “But if there’s a short period of time, say during rush hour, we can take that into consideration.”
With the lack of funding for firefighters, Del Campo said some in the community have questioned where the money will come from to pay for a new fire station.
“The county owns that property and they’re going to remodel the building that’s there to fit the needs of a fire station with the intention to staff it with an engine, a water tender, and two, and possibly three firefighters,” he said. “We’ve got one engine and two firefighters committed to that area. That’s the participation that Hollister is going to stand by, but the county will do the remodel.”
Del Campo reemphasized that he cannot afford to lose any more firefighters if he is to support the new station. He said he is optimistic that the Oct. 10 study session will result in sufficiently staffing the fire department.
You must be logged in to post a comment.