With great growth comes great opportunity. As the needs of our community evolve, Central County Fire & Rescue is excited to evolve, too, in order to best serve our residents and meet their biggest safety needs.
2019 was a record-setting year for Central County Fire & Rescue. Our crews responded to 6,611 emergency calls — an all-time high — while the number of medical emergency calls continues to rise.
CCFR has worked tirelessly to hire and train crew members so that we are equipped to keep up with this growing need in the most efficient manner. In early 2019, the District welcomed four new firefighter/paramedics to its ranks. As of this writing, 33% of CCFR’s suppression team are now licensed paramedics, the remaining are EMTs. Meanwhile, CCFR also set a goal of training every firefighter to drive and operate the District’s pumper, aerial and brush trucks. Seven new drivers were certified in 2019, which resulted in 96% of all fire suppression employees being certified to operate the District’s apparatuses.
Our team of investigators also continues to grow. These 19 CCFR investigators were able to determine the cause of more fires than last year, and discovered that 29 fires were intentionally started, up from 16 in 2018.
2019 brought with it a growing business community in our area. New commercial spaces including Amazon, FedEx and others moved into our community, and the CCFR Community Risk Reduction team worked to ensure these structures and occupancies are operated safely. This process also includes making sure structures are safe, with the appropriate number of fire hydrants, adequate water supply and adequate access for emergency vehicles.
CCFR continues to implement the community-created SAFE-T (Securing A Future of Excellence—Together) plan:
- Opened new Fire Station #5.
- Put two new multipurpose, all-terrain brush trucks into service.
- Completed training and began using bailout kits, which allow CCFR firefighters to swiftly escape a building if they become trapped.
- Put new self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs) into service, which replaced ones that were 15 years old. The new technology in these devices provide better communication, improved safety and forward-looking infrared technology.
A portion of the SAFE-T plan also focused on working to ensure financial stability, which included building a reserve that could sustain CCFR operations for six months. Through strong fiscal management, the District reached this goal in 2019 while also reducing the general revenue tax rate by 5.5%.
Thank you for your continued support of Central County Fire & Rescue. As the role of the fire service continues to evolve, we remain steadfastly committed to working with the community and providing the highest quality emergency services to keep our entire community safe. We encourage you to visit our website (centralcountyfire.org) and follow along on social media to learn more about our fire prevention resources and community programs, and to reach out if there’s ever anything we can do for you!
View the full 2019 Annual Report here