FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE County Fire Division Chief takes exception to Bonny Doon Volunteer Bonny Doon, California - January 28,
2008
Bonny Doon Volunteer John Forbes
spoke to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, January 27, 2009
about the state of County Fire. While Mr. Forbes very vocally supports forming a
fire district in Bonny Doon, his overriding concern is providing service to the
community. Mr. Forbes, and others, have repeatedly voiced their frustration in
gaining what they absolutely necessary improvements to County Fire. Mr. Forbes
made reference to the Ormsby Cutoff incident of the Summit Fire last
year.
After Mr. Forbes finished his comments, Mr. Steve
Woodill, Division Chief Cal Fire and also Chief of Operations for Santa
Cruz County [fire] stepped to the podium and addressed the board with a response
to Mr. Forbes comments.
The remarks of the two gentlemen are presented in their entirety, with the exception of Mr.
Forbes comments about his own beard. The complete comments are presented as
faithfully as possible.
Mr. John Forbes – Bonny Doon Volunteer
I am a 40 year member of the volunteer fire department.
I am in complete support of continuation to forming a fire district. I feel it is the
best plan for the volunteers and the community; it is the best bang for the
buck.
We have modeled volunteer districts right adjacent to us that have flourished over 50
years and have proven to be factual, operating, solid community based
systems.
County fire and the volunteers that augment County Fire/ Cal Fire is not in that
state. I’ll bring up the situation that happened at the Summit Fire, where the Ormsby Cutoff incident
which I’m sure that Chief Ferreira is aware of: The volunteers that augment the
paid station in Corralitos were unable to staff their equipment. THREE times
they were paged and they could not staff their equipment. You are now going to
face a lawsuit because of that.
And this occurs in other locations. Davenport is unable to staff its engine.
I am very concerned about the volunteers.
Our home is McDermott, We built both of our stations and I think that should be considered.
[end]
Steve Woodill - Division
Chief CalFire, Division Chief of Operations for Santa Cruz County
I am Division Chief CalFire, Division Chief of Operations for Santa Cruz County.
I‘d like to dispute a couple of the statements that were made concerning the Summit Fire
that were made by Mr. Forbes that were inaccurate.
Corralitos was staffed by the volunteers. That volunteer company is very active and works
well in the same location as the CalFire engine. And I frankly, personally and
professionally take exception to that statement. [end]
The Santa Cruz Sentinel covered the Ormsby incident in the May 22, 2008 edition. The full article is available at
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com
Briefly, quoted from the above identified Sentinel article,
Residents of Ormsby Cutoff Road questioned how fire crews responded
to the fire.
Denise Kraft and her husband Marc lost their house to the blaze
even though the couple said they called 911 and the Corralitos station 10 times
between 5:45 a.m. and 8 a.m. and even drove nine miles to the Corralitos station
to ask for help.
The Corralitos station was paged at least three times between 5:40
and 7:10 a.m. according to Cal Fire dispatch records. In at least one of the
instances, the station responded that it was staffed only with volunteers and
needed a driver/operator to drive the engine.
Denise Kraft said there were three fire trucks and several firefighters there at the time.
“They said, ‘It’s out of our jurisdiction,” Denise Kraft said.
“They didn’t do anything. They’re just like, Ma’am we’re aware of the
situation.
Mr. Forbes defends his remarks, and has spoken to Denise Kraft about the incident. What is
needed here, and throughout the county, says Mr. Forbes, is a stronger more,
independent volunteer presence or local fire districts capable of serving their
communities. We have been asking for more access to training for our volunteers,
and continue to have dispatch problems in Bonny Doon. The article in the
Sentinel makes it appear that the problems exist throughout the County Fire
system.
These problems must be addressed.
In an emergency, Call 911.
Friends of Bonny Doon Fire
www.friendsofbonnydoonfire.org
|
