NCFPD maintained ambulance service during Lilac Fire

Approximately 80 percent of North County Fire Protection District response calls are for emergency medical service rather than for fire suppression or smoke investigation. The quantity of calls to serve medical needs increased during the Lilac Fire due to the air quality, but NCFPD was able to maintain its ambulance and other paramedic service while most NCFPD personnel were fighting the fire.

“During the fire, we had three ambulances which are normally staffed during the day up and operational for the whole time,” NCFPD Deputy Fire Chief Steve Marovich said.

The fire district has ambulances based at Station 1 on Ivy Street, Station 4 in Pala Mesa and Station 5 on Olive Hill Road in Bonsall.

“We had all three ambulances staffed the whole time during the fire,” Marovich said.

The Lilac Fire began the morning of Dec. 7 and continued to burn Dec. 8. While those staffing fire engines were attempting to control the blaze, personnel assigned to ambulances were assisting those who experienced breathing difficulties due to the smoke as well as those who needed other medical aid.

“We probably ran close to twice the amount of calls that we normally do on those two days,” Marovich said. “We split up the operations here. We set up our command center here, and we had a division head handling the fire and one division handling normal routine matters in the district.”

The fire district has four battalion chiefs; three handled the Lilac Fire while one handled other operations. The district also has a division chief for operations as well as the deputy fire chief and the fire chief.

Each ambulance is staffed by one firefighter-paramedic and one limited-term apprentice firefighter. In September 2016, the NCFPD board approved a restructuring of the district’s reserve firefighter program by reclassifying the reserves as limited-term apprentices with full-time employment status. The apprentices, who are on a two-year contract which is renewable for two additional one-year terms, are paid minimum wage along with their benefits and are not part of the firefighters’ union. The apprentice program provides three apprentices per shift or nine total.

The North County Fire Protection District utilizes three platoons.

“We had almost entirely all three shifts at one time,” Marovich said.

The district has 54 firefighters on its staff along with the nine limited-term apprentices.

“There were only four that were missing, either on vacation or out of town,” Marovich said.

The North County Fire Protection District has had paramedic service since 1990.

“The training we do all through the year prepares us for situations like this so everything went very smooth, as smooth as possible,” Marovich said.