October 30, 2024 • 26 mins
In this episode, Deputy Chief Chuck Stark discusses how residents can prepare for the ongoing wildfire season and shares more about Confire’s efforts to mitigate the impact of wildfires throughout Contra Costa County
Guests: Confire Deputy Chief Chuck Stark and Host Kristi Jourdan.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to government Speak.
This is where we'll cut throughthe government speak to get the
information you need aboutcounty programs, services, and
events straight from the source.
Welcome to Government Speak,
Contra Costa County'sofficial podcast.
I'm your host, Christy Jordan,Contra Costa County's public
information officer, and onthis episode, uh, we have COF
Fire Deputy Chief Chuck Stark
(00:23):
joining us in studioat 10 Douglas.
Chief, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Christy.
So, um, every day that I gohome, I get in the car, drive
down the road here in Martinez,uh, heading toward Pacheco, and
often the horizon I see kindof in between Concord and Bay
Point, there's a a reallynoticeable sizable patch of um
(00:47):
charred grass among the browngrass and I think about.
Um, you know, where we're at in
terms of fire season this month.
Uh, how has thefire season been?
It just feels like it's longer,more intense, and um what's
ahead for us as a community?
(01:07):
Well, Christy, what you'venoticed is something that's
been probably changingover the past.
10 years or so, um.
Fire seasons, if it feels likethey're getting longer and
hotter, it's because they'regetting longer and hotter.
That's really you're, you'refeeling what's going on.
Um, a lot of, uh, the state is
in the samepredicament we're in.
(01:30):
And we really don't have afire season per se anymore.
It's just pretty much yearround, just the level of threat
that we have.
Um, we start off here in June.
Sometimes we areconsistent in May.
And it extends all the waythrough Halloween consistently.
And we sometimes extend intoNovember a couple months.
(01:54):
But our fuel here is very light.
Um, we don't have the heavytimber that they do in the
mountains, and we don't havethe snow accumulation in the
winter time, so.
Even in a period of Januarywhere you would think it's
winter time, we just hadChristmas, you know, how could
we have a wildland fire with uha long period of drought, it's
easy for our fields to dryout and we have had fairly
(02:17):
significant fires, uh, wildlandfires even in the month of
January, um, as recently asa couple of years ago, so.
We have a year-long problem now.
It's just a matter of degreeand going into these months,
uh, they're very critical, um.
September, October, um, they're
(02:39):
some of our moredangerous months.
Uh, we have actually ahigher volume of fires in the
beginning of the fire season,June, but we have our more, uh,
damaging and more threateningfires in September, October,
and even to Novemberbecause the fuel is so dry.
And we start, uh, experiencingour, our falling winds, they
(02:59):
call them, you would probablyrecognize them as sundowners or
Santa Anna's in SouthernCalifornia, but here we have
the Diablos.
And this time of year is whenwe start seeing that offshore
flow pick up and the fuel isso dry, um, that it gets heated
and, uh, with the winds.
And the humidity, we, we can bein a very v vulnerable position
(03:20):
really quick.
But it's not like we'rewaiting for those conditions.
I mean, Confire is anticipatingso talk about some of the work
that you know thedistrict's doing to
mitigate, lessen the impactsof potential wildfires and then
you know what's working whenwe do see a fire to to minimize
those impacts,
(03:43):
um. My responsibility in the
fire district is theoperations section.
So I like to talk about fireengines and bulldozers and all
that stuff.
Um, I will get to that, butwhat I want to start off with
is the preventionbureau in our district.
Um, Uh,
they do a tremendous job of
fire prevention work,fuel mitigation.
(04:05):
Um, in the past couple yearswith the Measure X initiative,
we got a lot of dollars todo fuel mitigation work.
Um, the bureau has put infor Cal Fire grants to do
mitigation work, and they'realso working with adjoining
fire districts to makecontinuous lines of defense.
So all that work ispaying dividends towards.
(04:26):
Reducing the possibilityof a large scale fire, um.
They also have crews that goout to some of the homeless
encampments because we havea lot of issues with fires
starting in those areas.
They have teams that go outand do education mitigation in
those areas thathelps a lot too.
We've seen some decreasesin fires from those types of
encampments because of theinteraction that our crews have
(04:50):
had with those folks, um, youknow, teaching them to be more
fire smart.
So.
I need to tout that becauseit's something that's very, I,
I'm, I, I'm very proud ofwhat they've been doing.
I think they'redoing a great job.
And I think there's just a lotof room to keep expanding those
types of programs becausepreventing the fire.
Solves all the problems.
(05:14):
But when the fires do start,um, you know, as of recently,
we've again with MeasureX and with annexation.
We've added companies, we'vebuilt stations and added
companies, so our capacity andour bandwidth is the strongest
it's ever been.
We have a lot of uh men andwomen out there that can go in
and fight the fireswhen they happen.
(05:34):
So that's been an improvementI've seen over the past 5 years
is our staffing levels are,are really, really good.
Um, we've also, how many peopledo we have who who actively go
out and fight fires?
Um, our minimum staffing levels
on a day to daybasis is 37 people.
Um, that's what we havestaffed in the fire stations.
Um, that includes the fire, thefire crews, the, uh, the truck
(05:56):
companies, the, the trainingstaff, um, all of the
operational personnel387 per day.
And um you mentioned MeasureX a couple of times, and we've
talked about it here before,but just so folks know, half
sales tax approved by votersa few years ago for community
support type services whichalso includes um some fire
(06:17):
services and I think one of theareas that I'm curious about,
I've heard about Hand Crew 12.
Can you talk about what they do?
Uh, the crew started out fundedthrough the fire district.
It was to be a fuelsmitigation unit.
Basically, they were to go to
projects to try to clean up, um.
(06:38):
Problem lots and uh improvedevacuation routes for folks,
you know, lemming trees,uh, things of that nature.
Uh, during the fire season whenthe fires were occurring, they
would go out and help get thecrews back into service, so
we'd have a quicker turnaround
and be availablefor the next fire.
Um, it was a 5 year plan, uh,with the help of Measure X and
(06:58):
a lot of ingenuity from the
folks involved with the program.
It has taken off.
Uh, we are now, we went fromYou know, a part-time program
to a full-time 7 day a week,12 hour a day program with two
crews that alternate, um.
It's amazing the amount ofwork you can get done with 18
motivated young men and women.
(07:21):
They really get after itand they do a good job, um.
During the fires and alsoduring the mitigation, so they
are an integral part ofwhat fire prevention does.
So they are on bothsides of the fence.
Um, they're working in thefire prevention arena in the
offseason when it's a littlewetter, and they're working in
the suppression section in the
summertime whenit's a little drier.
(07:43):
So we get full, um, use ofthem throughout the year.
Um
What are, what aresome of the, the um
The ways in which they work.
So you know, we talk aboutum weed abatement, you know,
trimming trees, that sort ofthing, but what are some of the
tools that they're actuallygoing out there and using?
So
(08:06):
they, they use hand tools.
They're basically a aa hand tool um team.
They do have some power tools.
They'll have a Sawyer andand some people to help with
brushing uh the larger stuff,but primarily they're using
Tools that people athome are familiar with.
They're using modified rakes,shovels, uh, things of that
nature, and they're basicallyjust cutting a line in the fuel
(08:28):
between the fire and thenon-burned down to dirt, and
they're just making a pathwhere the fire can't cross,
basically cutting it offat the pass, if you will.
That's that's basicallytheir responsibility.
What are some of the other kindof tactics and techniques that
the district'susing to mitigate?
Um, well, we have the increasedstaffing, which helps.
(08:49):
We have the hand crew, whichhelps, um, for several years in
a part time, well, for manyyears on a part-time basis and
for several years in afull-time basis, we've had a
heavy equipment program.
It's basically a bulldozerthat's uh staffed during the
summer months to help with um.
They help with uh fire trailmaintenance at the beginning of
(09:10):
the fire season and thenthey're also into the
suppression part inthe summer months.
So they're basically a forcemultiplier they can cut line
similar to what the hand crewdoes, but more quickly and
wider and um.
They can put in a lotof work rather quickly.
Um, we call it a forcemultiplier because it would
(09:31):
probably take 20 fire crews todo what they're able to do just
by driving that bladethrough the fire.
Wow,
um, that's really impressive.
Uh, you know, beyond, um, we'vetalked a lot about what the
district can do and is doing tomitigate impacts, but the but
the responsibility for fireprevention can also fall on
(09:51):
property owners, um.
So what are some things thatpeople can do to help with
those efforts to minimize the
impacts of wildfireson our community?
We've seen this practicallyapplied uh out in the field.
The folks that arebest with housekeeping.
And uh mitigating their ownproperties defensible space.
(10:12):
Uh those are where thesuccess stories happen, right?
Um. It only takes a little bit
of vegetation anda little bit of.
Uh, junk, if you will,about the property to.
Provide a ladder for that fire
to spread directlyinto the residents.
So when we go into thesesituations, we're looking to
(10:33):
protect protecthomes and life first.
So, um, having, givingus a fighting chance by
Developing a perimeter aroundyour home, clear vegetation,
cutting back trees, um,planting, plantings that aren't
as uh um susceptible to firehelps, and then hardening your
(10:55):
home, you know, keeping stuffoff the deck, keeping the eaves
clean, um, non-combustible, uh,roof coverings, things of that
nature also go a long way.
But you also have to put somethought into the timing of
those projects, right, becauseit feels like I'm reading more
and more about folks who areeither, you know, they've got
(11:17):
chains on their vehicles thatare dragging or um you know,
potentially creating a spark orthey're using lawn mowers and
they hit a stone orsomething like that.
Um, what are some words ofadvice for folks when they're
tackling these projects?
Do them early in the morning,uh, do them early in the year.
Uh, it's a fine line.
(11:40):
You don't want to do them tooearly, especially the weed
abatement, because if you dothem too early, you could get
more rain late in the seasonand actually have a second
growth, so you don't want to
have to go backand do them twice.
So you kind of have to time itright at the beginning of the
season to do it.
But definitely if you're goingto, uh, mow, we get a lot of
mowers, mower strikes, weedwhackers, especially with the
metal blades, um.
(12:02):
They are ferrous and you know,you hit a rock and you will
start a fire and if the fuel'sreceptive, which it very well
may be if you're out thereafter 10 o'clock or during a
dry spell, um, you could easilystart a fire and they spread
quickly, quick more quickly
than you can putit out yourself.
You think you may be able tostomp it out or pour a bucket
of water on it.
(12:23):
You may be, you may getlucky, but you probably won't.
So check the weather, make sureyou're not doing it during a
exceptionally low humidity.
Day and then uh do it as earlyin the morning as you can cause
the, the humidity is, it'sin your favor in the morning.
Beyond um some of thosepersonal impacts in the ways in
which people can have somecontrol over, you know, trying
(12:45):
to lessen the impacts of thewildfires and then also making
sure that um the work thatthey're doing is supporting
confire's efforts, um.
How do people actually staysafe during wildfire season?
I know what you know, my, myfamily and I, we, my loved
ones, we have a plan in placeand we, you know, we have our
go bags and we've talked aboutevacuation routes and we're
(13:06):
signed up for all of the, theum alerts, but you know, what
are some ways thatpeople can stay safe?
Well, you've named prettymuch all of them right there.
Be aware, you know, payattention, pay attention to
what the weather's doing,especially if you live in a
fire prone area, you know, ifyou live in the wildland urban
interface, this is whereit's most important.
(13:28):
Um, someone living in themiddle of downtown Concord or
Martinez, maybe not asimportant unless you live in a
pocket, then you need tobe cognizant of that, but.
Being aware of what's goingon is probably paramount.
Um, secondarily is having your
plan on how you'regoing to get out.
And have your stuff together
(13:49):
ahead of time readyto go because.
Your brain disconnects a littlebit when you're in the fight or
flight, and you're in a fight
or flight whenyou get evacuated.
So to have your medicines, tohave your pets, to have uh any
Elderly
Parents or neighbors orwhatever that are living with
(14:09):
you having a plan for gettingthem out, um, and exercising
and ahead of time is important.
And then signing up for thealerts, that's gonna, that's
gonna be the quickest way toknow when it's time to get out.
Um CWS alerts.org.org.
Um, they goteverything on there.
Um, I actually downloaded.
(14:31):
The, uh, preparedness and
evacuation plan that'son that website.
It's between the sheriff'soffice and Confire, and this
has, I just went throughthis morning again.
This has everythingyou need to know.
So if you go on thereand you read this, um,
You're going to be set for theuh wildland emergency that may
come along.
(14:53):
And for folks listening, um,community warning system is a
text message, email, andphone-based alert system
that'll give you informationaround evacuations uh and you
know, progress made on.
Response efforts.
So, um, you sign up for that,go to CWS alerts.org and you
can choose you know how youwant to receive those alerts.
(15:14):
Now, given, you know, thattool, um, again, would highly
encourage folks in the
community to signup for that, um.
What are, what's the differencebetween an evacuation alert
versus an evacuation warning?
When do you actually have to go?
So these terms get confusedvery easily and I still confuse
(15:37):
them myself, um, and I thinksome of it gets mixed up with
the weather and the evacuationsand the weather the weather
alerts are especially confusing.
So a red flag.
I'm probably gonnascrew this up right now.
A red flag warning isactually occurring.
(15:58):
A red flag watch may occur.
That's for the weatherfor evacuations.
An evacuation warning.
Is something that may happen.
An evacuation order is.
You need to go now.
And um, who calls theevacuation orders?
(16:20):
Who's responsible for that?
It's, it's by, by, by law, it's
the police authorityhave jurisdiction.
That's who's responsiblefor evacuations.
Practically how it happens is apartnership between, if in the
case of a wildfire, it would bethe fire, uh, commander and the
(16:42):
police commander, uh, togethermaking these decisions.
Deciding where we need to goand what we need to do, and
then those are relayed to thecommunity warning system that
puts out the alert.
So an evacuation warning isa potential threat, and an
evacuation order is you need togo grab your stuff, grab your
loved ones and get out.
(17:04):
Yes, we, we typically try togive an alert if possible and
if it's practical, just sopeople have the time to start
getting stuff together.
Uh, my advice to anyone,especially if you're um A
little less spry is that if you
hear an alert, just start going.
There's no problem with that,just going, getting out, but
the order you definitelyneed to get going.
Yeah, and making that decisionis really tough when it's a
(17:26):
warning because you want tomake sure you have all of your
items, you know, that you hadmentioned earlier, you know,
any loved ones, pets, um,medications, uh, clothing, all
So, um, that's that's good toknow, especially as you know,
sorts of things.
we're looking at fire seasonactivity ramping up, you know,
(17:47):
over here in the inthe coming weeks, um.
Uh, just a couple of othercommunication tools to flag.
So, you know, community warningsystem, you can also follow
them on social media.
They're on X, otherwise knownas Twitter, um, and you can
follow the Contra Costa CountyFire Protection District,
otherwise known as COF Fire onX, Facebook and Instagram for
(18:08):
the official departmentnews and information.
Um, let's switch gears a littlebit and talk about your career
with ConF Fire and Beyond.
You're a deputy chief, youoversee operations, um, you
know, how long have you been inthis field and and what keeps
you coming back?
I've been in the field.
Well, I started a long timeago, 1997, I started as a.
(18:31):
Basically what they called asleeper at a small place in uh
Sonoma County.
I did that while I wasgoing to paramedic school.
Um, I've been in the careerfire service for Close to 25
years now.
Um, a couple of agencies otherthan Confire, but the majority
of my time has been here atContra Costa Fire since 2002.
(18:55):
Um,
I spent a lot of time riding
around fire enginesand ambulances.
Uh, the majority of my careerhas been in the field, uh, but
I have progressed to the ranks.
I've been a firefighter andengineering captain, battalion
chief, and up to the currentposition I hold now as deputy
chief, um.
I think what has always keptme coming back was just the.
(19:17):
The ability to do stuff,different stuff, different
days, um.
You never know what you'regonna get in the field.
It's, uh, luck of the draw onthe calls you get, but even in
these administrative positions,um, I've been able to
participate in a number ofprograms that I never thought I
would be involved with, youknow, I'm a, I'm a fairly
(19:39):
simple person.
I, uh, I'm a graduate of
Pittsburgh HighSchool and EastB.
I grew up here, so, um.
Looking back, I can't believethat I'm in the position I'm in
now and I'm making decisionson multi-million dollar budgets
and, you know, contracts forambulances and helicopters and
and things of that nature.
So, um, I've had a veryfulfilling career and uh I
(20:01):
question myself every day, howin the heck did I get here?
But I bet there are no twodays that look alike for you.
Um. So we we've talked aboutwildfire season, we've talked
about what folks can do to helplessen the impacts of wildfire
and being proactive and and umbeing prepared for emergencies.
Um, let's switch gears and talka bit about, you know, some of
(20:24):
the administrative discussion.
So, um, within, you know, thepast few months we've heard
Chief Burchard and the board ofsupervisors discuss a shortage
of ambulances inour in our county.
Do you have any updates for
that on on how tosolve this issue?
Uh, yeah, I, I do.
(20:45):
Um, I, I think first I'd liketo start off by adding some
context to the, to where wecame from, um, and the, the
term shortage.
Um, coming out of the pandemic,it wasn't just the ambulance
system, it was prettymuch a healthcare.
Problem in general is that.
As essential workers inhealthcare, uh, a lot of people
(21:06):
got burnt out.
And we saw this inparamedics and EMTs.
We saw it in nurses and we'veseen it even in doctors.
So we had a big time challengegetting people to stay in the
profession and hire new people.
So we had a lot of attrition.
Um, during and, and in themonths after we started coming
out of the pandemic.
(21:29):
Um, so we did havesome staffing problems.
That caused us not to be able
to staff the correctnumber of ambulances.
Um, Looking for solutionsthere, um, we were able to.
Shift gears a little bit andhire the people we could so we
could get more EMTs and lessmedics so a plan was put
(21:49):
together that we worked withthe uh county LEMSA and the
district and the ambulanceprovider to put on more
ambulances but at a lesserlevel of care and try to triage
some of the lesser level callsto these lesser um ambulances
to be less ambulances.
So flash forward to now, um, wedon't really have an ambulance
(22:10):
shortage anymore.
We actually have 13 to 18 moreambulances than we did several
months ago.
Um. The paramedichiring has stabilized.
We don't see nearly as many umpeople calling off or not being
able to fill the shifts.
(22:30):
Uh, the staffing is been fairlyconsistent and much improved
over what it used to be.
So we're, we're very wellstaffed on the ALSI, which is
historically, we've hadenough ambulances to cover.
And we also have theseadditional 1318 BLS ambulances.
So in the past several months,the compliance numbers for what
the contract holds us to forresponse times has actually
(22:51):
been very well, been,been, been very good.
Um, we still have one-offs,um, we still have bad days, but
overall, um, you know, that'swhy the compliance is by a
month is because you can'taccurately predict what's gonna
happen every day and
Sometimes there's a lot ofcalls and sometimes there's not
um we still do struggle with umthe availability of ambulances
(23:14):
um even though they're staffed,there are times when um they're
either, um, well, mostlythey're just they're stuck
waiting to offloadpeople at the hospital.
They can only haveone patient at a time.
So until they can release thatperson to the higher level of
care, they can't goback into service.
So, um.
We still occasionallyexperience difficulties with
(23:36):
that which leads to delays,but um as to the shortage of
ambulances, I think we've um
We found a method tosolve that problem.
Um, the next thingwe're moving to is uh.
How do we reduce the amount ofcalls that were required to go
to because there is a certainpercentage that likely do not
(23:56):
need an ambulance to transportand that's where initiatives
we're looking at like nursenavigation where they would be
sent to a nurse to get uh gettheir needs met in a way other
than going to the hospitalbecause not only does that
impact us with transporting.
It impacts the emergency roomstoo just like us, they're
struggling with staffingthey're struggling with the
(24:17):
sheer amount of volume that
comes into their uh departments.
So, uh, pulling that reliefvalve we hope in the coming
months when it gets implementedwill be something that will um
help not only.
Our service, but the wholesystem that includes the
hospitals as well.
(24:37):
So it's more proactive outreachon what rises to the level of a
paramedic transport so thatfolks aren't calling for
everything, but if they'rehaving an emergency, they're
calling 911.
Absolutely and we're there forthat and uh there's checks and
balances to make surethat people don't.
You know, we're we're allhuman, you know, things are
gonna slip through the cracks
(24:58):
and someone'sgonna accidentally.
Get put to a place, but there'schecks and balances to make
sure they get put back in sowe don't inappropriately triage
someone to a level of care thatisn't appropriate for them.
But there are a number ofthings that, you know, people
just maybe they need theirmedications refilled.
They don't need to go to theemergency room for that, um.
You know, lower level care,uh, uh, um, you know, a chronic
(25:19):
condition, things like that,we can set them up with urgent
care with physicians, um,alternate destinations other
than have to go on a, a highlytrained paramedic ambulance to
an emergency room.
Um, we've covered a lot today.
If there was one takeaway forfolks listening, what would
that be?
(25:41):
Well, I think consideringwhat we've gone over, uh, the
takeaway would be an ounce of
prevention is wortha pound of cure.
So whether that's uh Preppingyour house for wild land, um,
being able to getout quick or uh.
Preparing yourself for a amedical emergency where you
keep up on your.
(26:01):
Um,
You know, your prescriptionsand your and your doctor's
appointments, um.
It's always better to not haveto use an emergency service
than have to useemergency service.
So prevention forthe pound of cure.
Well, thank you so muchfor being here, Chief.
I appreciate it.
Um, that's it for today's show.
I'm Christy Jordan, Count Cross
(26:22):
County's publicinformation officer.
Thanks for joining us onGovernment Speak, brought to
you by the Office ofCommunications and Media.
But don't just takeour word for it.
Stay curious, stayconnected, and stay informed.
Until next time, keep your mindopen and your facts straight.
Welcome to government Speak.
This is where we'll cut throughthe government speak to get the
information you need aboutcounty programs, services, and
events straight from the source.
Welcome to Government Speak,
Contra Costa County'sofficial podcast.
I'm your host, Christy Jordan,Contra Costa County's public
information officer, and onthis episode, uh, we have COF
Fire Deputy Chief Chuck Stark
(00:23):
joining us in studioat 10 Douglas.
Chief, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Christy.
So, um, every day that I gohome, I get in the car, drive
down the road here in Martinez,uh, heading toward Pacheco, and
often the horizon I see kindof in between Concord and Bay
Point, there's a a reallynoticeable sizable patch of um
(00:47):
charred grass among the browngrass and I think about.
Um, you know, where we're at in
terms of fire season this month.
Uh, how has thefire season been?
It just feels like it's longer,more intense, and um what's
ahead for us as a community?
(01:07):
Well, Christy, what you'venoticed is something that's
been probably changingover the past.
10 years or so, um.
Fire seasons, if it feels likethey're getting longer and
hotter, it's because they'regetting longer and hotter.
That's really you're, you'refeeling what's going on.
Um, a lot of, uh, the state is
in the samepredicament we're in.
(01:30):
And we really don't have afire season per se anymore.
It's just pretty much yearround, just the level of threat
that we have.
Um, we start off here in June.
Sometimes we areconsistent in May.
And it extends all the waythrough Halloween consistently.
And we sometimes extend intoNovember a couple months.
(01:54):
But our fuel here is very light.
Um, we don't have the heavytimber that they do in the
mountains, and we don't havethe snow accumulation in the
winter time, so.
Even in a period of Januarywhere you would think it's
winter time, we just hadChristmas, you know, how could
we have a wildland fire with uha long period of drought, it's
easy for our fields to dryout and we have had fairly
(02:17):
significant fires, uh, wildlandfires even in the month of
January, um, as recently asa couple of years ago, so.
We have a year-long problem now.
It's just a matter of degreeand going into these months,
uh, they're very critical, um.
September, October, um, they're
(02:39):
some of our moredangerous months.
Uh, we have actually ahigher volume of fires in the
beginning of the fire season,June, but we have our more, uh,
damaging and more threateningfires in September, October,
and even to Novemberbecause the fuel is so dry.
And we start, uh, experiencingour, our falling winds, they
(02:59):
call them, you would probablyrecognize them as sundowners or
Santa Anna's in SouthernCalifornia, but here we have
the Diablos.
And this time of year is whenwe start seeing that offshore
flow pick up and the fuel isso dry, um, that it gets heated
and, uh, with the winds.
And the humidity, we, we can bein a very v vulnerable position
(03:20):
really quick.
But it's not like we'rewaiting for those conditions.
I mean, Confire is anticipatingso talk about some of the work
that you know thedistrict's doing to
mitigate, lessen the impactsof potential wildfires and then
you know what's working whenwe do see a fire to to minimize
those impacts,
(03:43):
um. My responsibility in the
fire district is theoperations section.
So I like to talk about fireengines and bulldozers and all
that stuff.
Um, I will get to that, butwhat I want to start off with
is the preventionbureau in our district.
Um, Uh,
they do a tremendous job of
fire prevention work,fuel mitigation.
(04:05):
Um, in the past couple yearswith the Measure X initiative,
we got a lot of dollars todo fuel mitigation work.
Um, the bureau has put infor Cal Fire grants to do
mitigation work, and they'realso working with adjoining
fire districts to makecontinuous lines of defense.
So all that work ispaying dividends towards.
(04:26):
Reducing the possibilityof a large scale fire, um.
They also have crews that goout to some of the homeless
encampments because we havea lot of issues with fires
starting in those areas.
They have teams that go outand do education mitigation in
those areas thathelps a lot too.
We've seen some decreasesin fires from those types of
encampments because of theinteraction that our crews have
(04:50):
had with those folks, um, youknow, teaching them to be more
fire smart.
So.
I need to tout that becauseit's something that's very, I,
I'm, I, I'm very proud ofwhat they've been doing.
I think they'redoing a great job.
And I think there's just a lotof room to keep expanding those
types of programs becausepreventing the fire.
Solves all the problems.
(05:14):
But when the fires do start,um, you know, as of recently,
we've again with MeasureX and with annexation.
We've added companies, we'vebuilt stations and added
companies, so our capacity andour bandwidth is the strongest
it's ever been.
We have a lot of uh men andwomen out there that can go in
and fight the fireswhen they happen.
(05:34):
So that's been an improvementI've seen over the past 5 years
is our staffing levels are,are really, really good.
Um, we've also, how many peopledo we have who who actively go
out and fight fires?
Um, our minimum staffing levels
on a day to daybasis is 37 people.
Um, that's what we havestaffed in the fire stations.
Um, that includes the fire, thefire crews, the, uh, the truck
(05:56):
companies, the, the trainingstaff, um, all of the
operational personnel387 per day.
And um you mentioned MeasureX a couple of times, and we've
talked about it here before,but just so folks know, half
sales tax approved by votersa few years ago for community
support type services whichalso includes um some fire
(06:17):
services and I think one of theareas that I'm curious about,
I've heard about Hand Crew 12.
Can you talk about what they do?
Uh, the crew started out fundedthrough the fire district.
It was to be a fuelsmitigation unit.
Basically, they were to go to
projects to try to clean up, um.
(06:38):
Problem lots and uh improvedevacuation routes for folks,
you know, lemming trees,uh, things of that nature.
Uh, during the fire season whenthe fires were occurring, they
would go out and help get thecrews back into service, so
we'd have a quicker turnaround
and be availablefor the next fire.
Um, it was a 5 year plan, uh,with the help of Measure X and
(06:58):
a lot of ingenuity from the
folks involved with the program.
It has taken off.
Uh, we are now, we went fromYou know, a part-time program
to a full-time 7 day a week,12 hour a day program with two
crews that alternate, um.
It's amazing the amount ofwork you can get done with 18
motivated young men and women.
(07:21):
They really get after itand they do a good job, um.
During the fires and alsoduring the mitigation, so they
are an integral part ofwhat fire prevention does.
So they are on bothsides of the fence.
Um, they're working in thefire prevention arena in the
offseason when it's a littlewetter, and they're working in
the suppression section in the
summertime whenit's a little drier.
(07:43):
So we get full, um, use ofthem throughout the year.
Um
What are, what aresome of the, the um
The ways in which they work.
So you know, we talk aboutum weed abatement, you know,
trimming trees, that sort ofthing, but what are some of the
tools that they're actuallygoing out there and using?
So
(08:06):
they, they use hand tools.
They're basically a aa hand tool um team.
They do have some power tools.
They'll have a Sawyer andand some people to help with
brushing uh the larger stuff,but primarily they're using
Tools that people athome are familiar with.
They're using modified rakes,shovels, uh, things of that
nature, and they're basicallyjust cutting a line in the fuel
(08:28):
between the fire and thenon-burned down to dirt, and
they're just making a pathwhere the fire can't cross,
basically cutting it offat the pass, if you will.
That's that's basicallytheir responsibility.
What are some of the other kindof tactics and techniques that
the district'susing to mitigate?
Um, well, we have the increasedstaffing, which helps.
(08:49):
We have the hand crew, whichhelps, um, for several years in
a part time, well, for manyyears on a part-time basis and
for several years in afull-time basis, we've had a
heavy equipment program.
It's basically a bulldozerthat's uh staffed during the
summer months to help with um.
They help with uh fire trailmaintenance at the beginning of
(09:10):
the fire season and thenthey're also into the
suppression part inthe summer months.
So they're basically a forcemultiplier they can cut line
similar to what the hand crewdoes, but more quickly and
wider and um.
They can put in a lotof work rather quickly.
Um, we call it a forcemultiplier because it would
(09:31):
probably take 20 fire crews todo what they're able to do just
by driving that bladethrough the fire.
Wow,
um, that's really impressive.
Uh, you know, beyond, um, we'vetalked a lot about what the
district can do and is doing tomitigate impacts, but the but
the responsibility for fireprevention can also fall on
(09:51):
property owners, um.
So what are some things thatpeople can do to help with
those efforts to minimize the
impacts of wildfireson our community?
We've seen this practicallyapplied uh out in the field.
The folks that arebest with housekeeping.
And uh mitigating their ownproperties defensible space.
(10:12):
Uh those are where thesuccess stories happen, right?
Um. It only takes a little bit
of vegetation anda little bit of.
Uh, junk, if you will,about the property to.
Provide a ladder for that fire
to spread directlyinto the residents.
So when we go into thesesituations, we're looking to
(10:33):
protect protecthomes and life first.
So, um, having, givingus a fighting chance by
Developing a perimeter aroundyour home, clear vegetation,
cutting back trees, um,planting, plantings that aren't
as uh um susceptible to firehelps, and then hardening your
(10:55):
home, you know, keeping stuffoff the deck, keeping the eaves
clean, um, non-combustible, uh,roof coverings, things of that
nature also go a long way.
But you also have to put somethought into the timing of
those projects, right, becauseit feels like I'm reading more
and more about folks who areeither, you know, they've got
(11:17):
chains on their vehicles thatare dragging or um you know,
potentially creating a spark orthey're using lawn mowers and
they hit a stone orsomething like that.
Um, what are some words ofadvice for folks when they're
tackling these projects?
Do them early in the morning,uh, do them early in the year.
Uh, it's a fine line.
(11:40):
You don't want to do them tooearly, especially the weed
abatement, because if you dothem too early, you could get
more rain late in the seasonand actually have a second
growth, so you don't want to
have to go backand do them twice.
So you kind of have to time itright at the beginning of the
season to do it.
But definitely if you're goingto, uh, mow, we get a lot of
mowers, mower strikes, weedwhackers, especially with the
metal blades, um.
(12:02):
They are ferrous and you know,you hit a rock and you will
start a fire and if the fuel'sreceptive, which it very well
may be if you're out thereafter 10 o'clock or during a
dry spell, um, you could easilystart a fire and they spread
quickly, quick more quickly
than you can putit out yourself.
You think you may be able tostomp it out or pour a bucket
of water on it.
(12:23):
You may be, you may getlucky, but you probably won't.
So check the weather, make sureyou're not doing it during a
exceptionally low humidity.
Day and then uh do it as earlyin the morning as you can cause
the, the humidity is, it'sin your favor in the morning.
Beyond um some of thosepersonal impacts in the ways in
which people can have somecontrol over, you know, trying
(12:45):
to lessen the impacts of thewildfires and then also making
sure that um the work thatthey're doing is supporting
confire's efforts, um.
How do people actually staysafe during wildfire season?
I know what you know, my, myfamily and I, we, my loved
ones, we have a plan in placeand we, you know, we have our
go bags and we've talked aboutevacuation routes and we're
(13:06):
signed up for all of the, theum alerts, but you know, what
are some ways thatpeople can stay safe?
Well, you've named prettymuch all of them right there.
Be aware, you know, payattention, pay attention to
what the weather's doing,especially if you live in a
fire prone area, you know, ifyou live in the wildland urban
interface, this is whereit's most important.
(13:28):
Um, someone living in themiddle of downtown Concord or
Martinez, maybe not asimportant unless you live in a
pocket, then you need tobe cognizant of that, but.
Being aware of what's goingon is probably paramount.
Um, secondarily is having your
plan on how you'regoing to get out.
And have your stuff together
(13:49):
ahead of time readyto go because.
Your brain disconnects a littlebit when you're in the fight or
flight, and you're in a fight
or flight whenyou get evacuated.
So to have your medicines, tohave your pets, to have uh any
Elderly
Parents or neighbors orwhatever that are living with
(14:09):
you having a plan for gettingthem out, um, and exercising
and ahead of time is important.
And then signing up for thealerts, that's gonna, that's
gonna be the quickest way toknow when it's time to get out.
Um CWS alerts.org.org.
Um, they goteverything on there.
Um, I actually downloaded.
(14:31):
The, uh, preparedness and
evacuation plan that'son that website.
It's between the sheriff'soffice and Confire, and this
has, I just went throughthis morning again.
This has everythingyou need to know.
So if you go on thereand you read this, um,
You're going to be set for theuh wildland emergency that may
come along.
(14:53):
And for folks listening, um,community warning system is a
text message, email, andphone-based alert system
that'll give you informationaround evacuations uh and you
know, progress made on.
Response efforts.
So, um, you sign up for that,go to CWS alerts.org and you
can choose you know how youwant to receive those alerts.
(15:14):
Now, given, you know, thattool, um, again, would highly
encourage folks in the
community to signup for that, um.
What are, what's the differencebetween an evacuation alert
versus an evacuation warning?
When do you actually have to go?
So these terms get confusedvery easily and I still confuse
(15:37):
them myself, um, and I thinksome of it gets mixed up with
the weather and the evacuationsand the weather the weather
alerts are especially confusing.
So a red flag.
I'm probably gonnascrew this up right now.
A red flag warning isactually occurring.
(15:58):
A red flag watch may occur.
That's for the weatherfor evacuations.
An evacuation warning.
Is something that may happen.
An evacuation order is.
You need to go now.
And um, who calls theevacuation orders?
(16:20):
Who's responsible for that?
It's, it's by, by, by law, it's
the police authorityhave jurisdiction.
That's who's responsiblefor evacuations.
Practically how it happens is apartnership between, if in the
case of a wildfire, it would bethe fire, uh, commander and the
(16:42):
police commander, uh, togethermaking these decisions.
Deciding where we need to goand what we need to do, and
then those are relayed to thecommunity warning system that
puts out the alert.
So an evacuation warning isa potential threat, and an
evacuation order is you need togo grab your stuff, grab your
loved ones and get out.
(17:04):
Yes, we, we typically try togive an alert if possible and
if it's practical, just sopeople have the time to start
getting stuff together.
Uh, my advice to anyone,especially if you're um A
little less spry is that if you
hear an alert, just start going.
There's no problem with that,just going, getting out, but
the order you definitelyneed to get going.
Yeah, and making that decisionis really tough when it's a
(17:26):
warning because you want tomake sure you have all of your
items, you know, that you hadmentioned earlier, you know,
any loved ones, pets, um,medications, uh, clothing, all
So, um, that's that's good toknow, especially as you know,
sorts of things.
we're looking at fire seasonactivity ramping up, you know,
(17:47):
over here in the inthe coming weeks, um.
Uh, just a couple of othercommunication tools to flag.
So, you know, community warningsystem, you can also follow
them on social media.
They're on X, otherwise knownas Twitter, um, and you can
follow the Contra Costa CountyFire Protection District,
otherwise known as COF Fire onX, Facebook and Instagram for
(18:08):
the official departmentnews and information.
Um, let's switch gears a littlebit and talk about your career
with ConF Fire and Beyond.
You're a deputy chief, youoversee operations, um, you
know, how long have you been inthis field and and what keeps
you coming back?
I've been in the field.
Well, I started a long timeago, 1997, I started as a.
(18:31):
Basically what they called asleeper at a small place in uh
Sonoma County.
I did that while I wasgoing to paramedic school.
Um, I've been in the careerfire service for Close to 25
years now.
Um, a couple of agencies otherthan Confire, but the majority
of my time has been here atContra Costa Fire since 2002.
(18:55):
Um,
I spent a lot of time riding
around fire enginesand ambulances.
Uh, the majority of my careerhas been in the field, uh, but
I have progressed to the ranks.
I've been a firefighter andengineering captain, battalion
chief, and up to the currentposition I hold now as deputy
chief, um.
I think what has always keptme coming back was just the.
(19:17):
The ability to do stuff,different stuff, different
days, um.
You never know what you'regonna get in the field.
It's, uh, luck of the draw onthe calls you get, but even in
these administrative positions,um, I've been able to
participate in a number ofprograms that I never thought I
would be involved with, youknow, I'm a, I'm a fairly
(19:39):
simple person.
I, uh, I'm a graduate of
Pittsburgh HighSchool and EastB.
I grew up here, so, um.
Looking back, I can't believethat I'm in the position I'm in
now and I'm making decisionson multi-million dollar budgets
and, you know, contracts forambulances and helicopters and
and things of that nature.
So, um, I've had a veryfulfilling career and uh I
(20:01):
question myself every day, howin the heck did I get here?
But I bet there are no twodays that look alike for you.
Um. So we we've talked aboutwildfire season, we've talked
about what folks can do to helplessen the impacts of wildfire
and being proactive and and umbeing prepared for emergencies.
Um, let's switch gears and talka bit about, you know, some of
(20:24):
the administrative discussion.
So, um, within, you know, thepast few months we've heard
Chief Burchard and the board ofsupervisors discuss a shortage
of ambulances inour in our county.
Do you have any updates for
that on on how tosolve this issue?
Uh, yeah, I, I do.
(20:45):
Um, I, I think first I'd liketo start off by adding some
context to the, to where wecame from, um, and the, the
term shortage.
Um, coming out of the pandemic,it wasn't just the ambulance
system, it was prettymuch a healthcare.
Problem in general is that.
As essential workers inhealthcare, uh, a lot of people
(21:06):
got burnt out.
And we saw this inparamedics and EMTs.
We saw it in nurses and we'veseen it even in doctors.
So we had a big time challengegetting people to stay in the
profession and hire new people.
So we had a lot of attrition.
Um, during and, and in themonths after we started coming
out of the pandemic.
(21:29):
Um, so we did havesome staffing problems.
That caused us not to be able
to staff the correctnumber of ambulances.
Um, Looking for solutionsthere, um, we were able to.
Shift gears a little bit andhire the people we could so we
could get more EMTs and lessmedics so a plan was put
(21:49):
together that we worked withthe uh county LEMSA and the
district and the ambulanceprovider to put on more
ambulances but at a lesserlevel of care and try to triage
some of the lesser level callsto these lesser um ambulances
to be less ambulances.
So flash forward to now, um, wedon't really have an ambulance
(22:10):
shortage anymore.
We actually have 13 to 18 moreambulances than we did several
months ago.
Um. The paramedichiring has stabilized.
We don't see nearly as many umpeople calling off or not being
able to fill the shifts.
(22:30):
Uh, the staffing is been fairlyconsistent and much improved
over what it used to be.
So we're, we're very wellstaffed on the ALSI, which is
historically, we've hadenough ambulances to cover.
And we also have theseadditional 1318 BLS ambulances.
So in the past several months,the compliance numbers for what
the contract holds us to forresponse times has actually
(22:51):
been very well, been,been, been very good.
Um, we still have one-offs,um, we still have bad days, but
overall, um, you know, that'swhy the compliance is by a
month is because you can'taccurately predict what's gonna
happen every day and
Sometimes there's a lot ofcalls and sometimes there's not
um we still do struggle with umthe availability of ambulances
(23:14):
um even though they're staffed,there are times when um they're
either, um, well, mostlythey're just they're stuck
waiting to offloadpeople at the hospital.
They can only haveone patient at a time.
So until they can release thatperson to the higher level of
care, they can't goback into service.
So, um.
We still occasionallyexperience difficulties with
(23:36):
that which leads to delays,but um as to the shortage of
ambulances, I think we've um
We found a method tosolve that problem.
Um, the next thingwe're moving to is uh.
How do we reduce the amount ofcalls that were required to go
to because there is a certainpercentage that likely do not
(23:56):
need an ambulance to transportand that's where initiatives
we're looking at like nursenavigation where they would be
sent to a nurse to get uh gettheir needs met in a way other
than going to the hospitalbecause not only does that
impact us with transporting.
It impacts the emergency roomstoo just like us, they're
struggling with staffingthey're struggling with the
(24:17):
sheer amount of volume that
comes into their uh departments.
So, uh, pulling that reliefvalve we hope in the coming
months when it gets implementedwill be something that will um
help not only.
Our service, but the wholesystem that includes the
hospitals as well.
(24:37):
So it's more proactive outreachon what rises to the level of a
paramedic transport so thatfolks aren't calling for
everything, but if they'rehaving an emergency, they're
calling 911.
Absolutely and we're there forthat and uh there's checks and
balances to make surethat people don't.
You know, we're we're allhuman, you know, things are
gonna slip through the cracks
(24:58):
and someone'sgonna accidentally.
Get put to a place, but there'schecks and balances to make
sure they get put back in sowe don't inappropriately triage
someone to a level of care thatisn't appropriate for them.
But there are a number ofthings that, you know, people
just maybe they need theirmedications refilled.
They don't need to go to theemergency room for that, um.
You know, lower level care,uh, uh, um, you know, a chronic
(25:19):
condition, things like that,we can set them up with urgent
care with physicians, um,alternate destinations other
than have to go on a, a highlytrained paramedic ambulance to
an emergency room.
Um, we've covered a lot today.
If there was one takeaway forfolks listening, what would
that be?
(25:41):
Well, I think consideringwhat we've gone over, uh, the
takeaway would be an ounce of
prevention is wortha pound of cure.
So whether that's uh Preppingyour house for wild land, um,
being able to getout quick or uh.
Preparing yourself for a amedical emergency where you
keep up on your.
(26:01):
Um,
You know, your prescriptionsand your and your doctor's
appointments, um.
It's always better to not haveto use an emergency service
than have to useemergency service.
So prevention forthe pound of cure.
Well, thank you so muchfor being here, Chief.
I appreciate it.
Um, that's it for today's show.
I'm Christy Jordan, Count Cross
(26:22):
County's publicinformation officer.
Thanks for joining us onGovernment Speak, brought to
you by the Office ofCommunications and Media.
But don't just takeour word for it.
Stay curious, stayconnected, and stay informed.
Until next time, keep your mindopen and your facts straight.
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