Emergency Inside - North County Fire Authority (CA)

Emergency Inside - North County Fire Authority (CA)

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Daly City Fire Department - Station 94

Engine 94

The following is a summary of responses to interview questions regarding the department 

Interviewee: Heather Peterson

General Information

North County Fire Authority Website: https://northcountyfire.org/

* Information found from NCFA website
NCFA serves three cities: Brisbane, Daly City, and Pacifica

Personal note: While the fire administration of the three cities is merged, the fire department operations remain independent

1) What equipment does Daly City Fire have access to?

     - Five engines and one truck are available for use

     - 7.5 miles squared covered

     - Access to an R-94 unit (Rope rescue)

     - For Haz-Mat incidents, Belmont is contacted

• Rope rescue is utilized for incidents involving cliff/beach rescue. Expect Coastside and South San Fransisco collaboration

2) General Engine information

     - Engine (2 within the station)

     - CA-OES engine; a new engine which is being housed within Station 94 (dispatched for mass incidents such as wildfires)

CA-OES engine

   - E-94 (Pictured at the top of the article)

• Standard equipment including extrication, medical, and hose
• Hose includes 700 ft  5 inch, 600 ft 2.5 inch, 150 ft 1.75 inch, 200 ft 1.75 inch (all except 700 ft utilize combination nozzles) all located in the back/side of the engine
• The 150 ft 1.75 inch is often combined with a gated Y for apartment and hotel complexes (see this page for more information on various hydrant connections)
• Booster line up the top
• Standard wildland equipment and tools (Pulaski, Rhino, etc.)
• 500-gallon capacity
• Includes 110 ft 1.75-inch bumper line (often used for vehicle fires)

3) General Truck information

 

Truck 51 from San Bruno

   - T-51 Reserve Truck from San Bruno

• T-51 is the only truck available in the entirety of NCFA
• The previous truck was involved in a disastrous accident in 2014 which resulted in severe injuries (Article on the incident: https://abc7news.com/archive/9498340/)
• Due to being the only truck in all of NCFA, time responses are heavily affected. Public relation consequences are discussed below

4) How involved is Daly City Fire with its community?

   - The department hosts various outreach events (ex: baseball games)

   - Social media is utilized to connect with locals

5) How are the relations with the surrounding residents?

   - Poor

   - This can be explained with one word; mistrust. The population of Daly City is, by a majority, composed of an immigrant population. There is a number of illegal immigrants present.

• Due to illegal presence, many immigrants fear to contact public service; they are worried they may be deported and/or separated from their families. Hence, if any incident occurs, the call for help is delayed as it is the last resort to contact government workers (firefighters)
• On the other hand, many immigrant families crowd their living spaces because of the rising costs. This poses a severe danger as a fire can trap multiple residents in with little to no escape available

   - In addition, the use of only a single truck (T-51) to cover all of the NCFA causes delayed response times. This creates an extremely negative impression upon the residents of Daly City, but also Brisbane and Pacifica

   - Lack of finance from the city; there is a demand for more equipment (such as a new truck), but the city does not prioritize fire response as much.

Personal note: There is a strong connection between the economic status of the population and the financial capacity of the local fire department. North Tahoe Fire is a great example (see the interview here); while the population covered is not as much as Daly City, the residents of North Tahoe have much more money to invest (note the condos in Tahoe) into the public safety. Therefore, their department contains more and better resources. While this pattern does not apply everywhere, it appears to be the rule of thumb. The problem comes when poorer communities lack funding for emergency response (these communities tend to need emergency services the most)

   - In regards to relations within the Daly City Fire department, there are only about 56 employees. This allows for a strong connection between everyone; there is a strong sense of family

Thank you to the NCFA team for making this documentation possible!

Check out other interviews on different departments here