The long-awaited study of the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District's coverage standards underscores what many have argued for decades: Summerland desperately needs a new fire station.
“Station 2 poses a health and safety risk and should be temporarily relocated and then permanently replaced,” said Stewart Gary of CityGate, the company hired to conduct the $86,000 study. Gary presented key findings from the study at the August 2 board meeting. “And if the conversation about funding the move meant another three years – in which case I will be strict – I would literally evacuate this crew. I would find a temporary building in Summerland and get them out of that building.”
The study also found that the county should have a third station between Carpinteria and Summerland to reduce response time to reach properties in a key population cluster.
The engines used by both stations do not reach the middle zone within four minutes, which is the goal. Moving the Summerland station closer to Carpinteria would result in longer response times within the Summerland community. “The district is just too long,” Gary noted.
The Carpinteria area is out of luck, Gary said, when a call requires three units in a short period of time because Ventura and Montecito are too far away to arrive quickly. Due to its proximity to Montecito, Summerland now has a decent response time of three units. A third station would better position Carpinteria in an emergency requiring a multi-unit response.
In his presentation to the fire department, Gary mentioned that the owner of an optimally located property might be willing to sell the property. “Packages… in a district like this don’t happen every decade. So if you even go the third station route, I wouldn't talk about it for two years. I would start actively looking for a viable property.”
Financing is, of course, the biggest hurdle to building a new Summerland station and a third station. In 2015, voters rejected a $10 million bond that would be split equally between a rebuilt Carpinteria station and a new Summerland station. Plans for the proposed Summerland station had already been approved by the county for a downtown property owned by a willing seller, the Santa Barbara County Mosquito and Vector Control District, but the county received only 54 percent of the vote and needed a supermajority.
The strong message conveyed by the study on reporting standards could help convince voters that a replacement of channels is urgently needed. “I think it would have made the difference in selling the first bond,” said Interim Fire Chief Jim Rampton.
Merging with a larger authority has also been discussed for years and touted by firefighters as a step in the right direction for the small district. CityGate's study found that consolidation would be possible with a highly supportive board and public. The agency best positioned to annex the county would be Santa Barbara County, Gary said, recommending the board request a service consolidation proposal from the county board. A merger, Gary said, would be “a long and winding road” that would require multiple studies and LAFCO approval.
The benefits of consolidation would be “bench depth, resiliency and redundancy,” Gary said. If someone on staff retires, takes a vacation, or quits, someone else at the large agency could step in. “That’s you [a] “Small ecosystems,” Gary said, “and small ecosystems…are fragile.”
Board President Chris Johnson said he believes the consolidation option should be considered, but echoed several speakers, including former board members Lisa Guravitz and Ben Miller, who favored keeping a locally run district. Johnson said, “My preference is to keep local control, go to the voters and say, 'Hey, look, we have to pass a bond or we're going to have to go to the county or someone else to build.' ' these stations.'”
CityGate recommended increasing headquarters staffing by hiring a fourth fire chief at the district headquarters. The study found that record keeping and compliance with standards improved under the interim chief, but a different staff member would allow the district to catch up more fully in those areas.
The Carpinteria station needs attention but is in far less poor condition than Summerland, according to CityGate. Built approximately 50 years ago, the aging building has heating, electrical and plumbing problems that require repairs to meet California Essential Facilities Act and Cal/OSHA requirements.
An analysis of call types found that 67 percent of calls the county receives are medical calls, with nearly 1,100 from the Carpinteria station and fewer than 200 from the Summerland station last year. Both stations combined responded to fewer than 100 fires in 2015, meaning fires accounted for only 3 percent of total demand. Gary said these numbers are typical for an urban district.
Concurrent events are rare in CSFPD. Only 21 percent of incidents result in a second call and in only 0.69 percent of cases there is a third simultaneous call. Even at peak times, the units operate an average of 6 percent of the time, far less than the 30 percent that would lead CityGate to recommend more staff.
After receiving CityGate's findings, the district will consider next steps. “Now the work begins,” said Rampton. “We have a lot to do.”