New fire engines were recently purchased by the state of California for five rural fire districts in Mendocino County, Sen. Mike McGuire announced Friday in a virtual presentation.
“And these trucks couldn’t show up soon enough, because (peak) fire season is just around the corner, nipping at our heels, and we need to get these engines deployed as quickly as possible,” said McGuire (D – Healdsburg), adding that six of the 10 vehicles purchased for fire departments in both northern Mendocino County and southern Humboldt County had already been delivered, with the rest expected to arrive by May.
“This is the first brand-new truck we’ve ever had in our department,” said Leggett Valley Fire Chief Ely Reighter, standing in front of his fire district’s new engine while “speaking on behalf of the five fire districts in Northern Mendocino” that received similar equipment, explaining that the fire departments of Covelo, Laytonville, Leggett, Piercy and Westport together cover “approximately 1,100 square miles of forest, mountains, valleys coastlines and small towns,” and that such local volunteer fire departments are “the backbone of an emergency response,” often being the first people on the scene of fires, crashes, and medical emergencies.
And Reighter said significant new challenges have emerged over the past decade, including a “shifting climate (that now produces) longer dry seasons, hotter summers and more frequent wind events (that) have increased our call volume and extended our deployments. But the most pressing challenge … is the toll on our members: These are ordinary people with families, jobs and lives outside of the fire service, and protecting the people who protect us is a priority, and modern, multi-purpose rescue vehicles are a concrete way to support our fire firefighters, (because) new apparatus get us to the incident faster, equip crews for a wider range of emergencies, reduces the strain on aging equipment, and when other agencies can rely on us, the whole region becomes safer.”
“Sen. McGuire has taken the time to understand our reality and is committed to bringing modern, multi-function fire apparatus to our area,” said Reighter, expressing gratitude on behalf of his district and the other four in Mendocino County.
As background, McGuire said the funding began materializing “two years ago, after we met with fire chiefs in this region and moved to secure funding to replace aging fire trucks in one of the most remote stretches of the North Coast, (where) local fire districts and their volunteers are the first line of defense in rural communities like Westport and Covelo, (who have) have been working with decades-old equipment for far too long.
“And I’ll be really blunt about this: some of the fire engines that are being replaced are even older than I am,” McGuire continued. “And yet, these local heroes … always get the job done, despite having antiquated equipment.”
As for the new engines, McGuire said each “cost about $190,000 fully-loaded,” and that each district’s chief “had a say in how each truck would be equipped,” describing the “new rigs as pretty damn adaptable: they’re compact, able to access remote properties on narrow roads,” and have space for a water tank, pump and “extensive room for medical supplies and equipment.”
In addition to securing funding for new equipment, McGuire said that state officials have “begun transitioning all 3,000 seasonal Cal Fire firefighters to full-time staff, because fire season in this state is 365 damn days a year,” adding that “we’ve doubled the number of firefighters over the last nine years, going from 6,700 to now 12,500 today, and we’re about to hire an additional 1,600 Cal Fire over the next three years.”
McGuire also noted that “one of my top priorities is to be able to make this state more fire-safe. We have been devastated by wildfire after wildfire after wildfire, and I promise that we are going to continue to go to the mat to expand wildfire prevention programs, and enhance wildfire-fighting resources.”
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