Wildland Fire Engine Acquisition & Regional Interoperability Program

The Deer Springs Fire Protection District is seeking an Award from the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Program. This award will allow the District to acquire a piece of apparatus capable of suppressing Wildland/Urban Interface fires in its own jurisdiction & will provide for regional interoperability with the California Mutual Aid System.


Deer Springs & Wildland /Urban-Interface Fires

The Deer Springs Fire Protection District located in San Diego County, California, serves a rural community of about 12,000 in a coastal mountain range covering 46 square miles, with a very high fire danger. Wildland fire season does not ever really end in this area of California. The District is an extreme example of the Wildland/Urban Interface environment that constantly challenges Southern California firefighters. The geography is primarily steep canyons, with homes perched at varying levels and in close proximity to the surrounding vegetation. Bisecting the District is Interstate-15, a major Southern California highway carrying over 96,000 vehicles a day. The District responds to numerous vehicle fires within its own boundaries and as a mutual aid resource to surrounding feeder communities. These fires routinely spread into Wildland areas from the roadway. In the past 3 ½ years the immediate area has suffered 5 major large Urban /Interface fires burning over 89,000 acres, destroying 98 residences and 153 outbuildings. Smaller fires consume several homes and accompanying acreage on a routine basis. Within the District, aggressive Fire Inspections are conducted and reasonable compliance is generated, however they cannot keep up with the re-growth of the vegetation.

The current Wildland/Brush engine is over 20 years old and has reached the end of its useful life. Mechanical problems have kept it out of service 40-50% of the last 3 years. Some problems including electrolysis from several different types of structural metal cannot be repaired. It also does not comply with any current industry safety standards such as NFPA & OSHA for a Brush type engine, i.e. the seating for the firefighters is exposed/open and on the rear deck of the body. Wildland/Urban-Interface fires pose a severe hazard for the District without a Brush engine. The two full sized structure engines within the District have a standard wheel base and are unable to negotiate many of the narrow and winding roads within the Interface areas. District personnel are currently forced to attempt & take full-size apparatus down roads that are so uneven they have caused structural damage to the frame, body and attached equipment. Common Wildland
Firefighting safety rules are routinely violated because the structural type engines enter areas that are not conducive to rapid egress. On several occasions, these engines have been stuck in the dirt, taking several hours to extricate. Had active fire been advancing towards them, there would have been no escape. The District has had to adopt a more conservative policy for attacking Wildland fires. The result is the un-controlled growth of Wildland fires until regional resources arrive with the appropriate type of apparatus.



Revenue Limitations

Tax limiting legislation severely constrains the Districts budget. As a rural area with a significant number of combined residential/agricultural parcels attempting to grow various fruits, our tax revenues are limited. Harvests have been down dramatically the past few years due to drought and now the industry has been completely quarantined due to contamination from the Mexican Fruit Fly. A continuing Agricultural State of Emergency will remain in place for the foreseeable future. The result is even lower agricultural production and significantly more ground fuels in areas traditionally considered safe through irrigation. Another major tax limitation is the significant number of retired seniors in our community. Finally,growth in the community has forced the District to begin the process of adding a third staffed Fire Station. The added income from this growth does not outweigh the expense of a new building & equipping this new facility with a new structural engine. Community concern for ISO Ratings and EMS response times far outweighs any interest in funding a Brush engine.Consequently, replacing the Brush engine will not be possible without outside funding sources, during an era when it is needed most.

Regional Interoperability

The lack of a functional Brush engine not only jeopardizes the immediate Deer Springs community, but also affects the Districts ability to participate in the regional interoperability response to Wildland fires throughout Southern California. Last year alone the District responded to over 65 Mutual Aid requests, many of which were Wildland Fires. California utilizes a standardized Incident Command System that organizes response to major Wildland fires. By organizing Wildland engines into “Strike Teams” of 5 engines and assigning a Chief Officer, regional fire command centers have a coordinated system of response to incidents. Numerous times a year the District is requested to participate in Strike Teams that respond throughout Southern California. The inability of the Deer Springs Fire District to provide a Wildland engine can prevent the formation of a Strike Team utilizing the other 4 engines in our pre-designated multi-jurisdictional zone. For accountability and safety reasons, Strike Teams are not dispatched without the full complement of 5 engines, resulting in the potential for the other 4 engines to be side-lined. Strike Teams are also utilized for other emergency events & hazards such as earthquakes, floods, HAZMATS and potential terrorism events.

Specific Request for Funding
The Deer Springs Fire Protection District is seeking an Award from the Assistance to Firefighters Program in the amount of $234,000.00 which would allow for the purchase of an NFPA/ICS Type 3 Wildland Apparatus. The addition of a safe & reliable piece of Wildland firefighting apparatus would allow us to once again actively participate in the immediate suppression of Wildland fires within our own jurisdiction. The safety of District Firefighters and citizens in general would be dramatically enhanced. Without FEMA funding for a Brush engine, District Firefighters will be forced to continue placing themselves in unacceptably dangerous situations by utilizing a full sized structural engine for numerous Wildland/Urban Interface responses. Immediately surrounding our jurisdiction are 5 other rural to semi-rural Fire Districts, that serve a combined populace of over 100,000 people. A functioning Wildland engine, centrally located in our District, would rapidly be able to serve that population base as well, ultimately serving a combined population of over 112,000 people.