Cal Fire shuts Red Mountain station for the winter

The doors of Cal Fire’s Red Mountain station were shut on Nov. 21 due to financial impacts, and will remain closed until fire season begins again in 2012.

According to Nick Schuler, a Cal Fire battalion chief and spokesperson, the De Luz Cal Fire station and Miller station will stay open, and will respond to calls that would have regularly been responded to by the Red Mountain crew.

“North County Fire Protection District is responsible for all the traffic accidents in the area,” he said. “We would only assist in their district.”

According to North County Fire chief Bill Metcalf, most Cal Fire stations are seasonal stations, save for a few under contract to local governments. The seasonal stations are staffed during the area’s wildfire season and not staffed for the rest of the year.

When fully staffed, the Red Mountain station has six firefighters, who would man two engines. Seasonal employees were laid off or transferred to other stations when Red Mountain closed, and permanent employees were assigned to other stations.

“From our perspective, it will be a loss for this area,” said Metcalf. “The crews at Red Mountain assist us on everything from medical calls to accidents on the freeway to structure fires. Their absence will be a loss in fire resources in this area. We will compensate by adding additional engines to responses to fill the hole created by their absence, but especially for incidents in the immediate Red Mountain area, response times will definitely take longer.”

Incidents requiring emergency responders that would have been answered to by firefighters stationed at Red Mountain will now have to wait for engines from North County Fire’s Pala Mesa or downtown stations.

“The actual delay depends on where the emergency is, but if we had an emergency incident anywhere in the district, their dispatch would have responded,” said Metcalf. “It could have been a medical call in a home or neighborhood, or it could have been an accident on the freeway or a structure fire. They have been very committed to serving this community.”

Despite the unanticipated closure, it was never guaranteed that Red Mountain would stay open throughout the year.

“Red Mountain has always been a seasonal station, however here in San Diego County in recent years (since the big fires of 2007) there has been supplemental funding available to keep the seasonal stations open year round,” said Metcalf in a recent email. “In the case of Red Mountain, we have enjoyed year round coverage by Cal Fire for the last several years. It seems that now we are going to experience one of the side effects of the state’s budget crisis; the station will close until late spring or summer next year.”

Cal Fire still has the ability to upstaff a station if necessary, said Schuler.

“If the weather drastically changes, and we have dry weather with windy conditions, we have the ability to man the station as long as it needs,” he said. “We will look at the amount of rain, the cost of the facility, and be continually evaluating field moisture levels.”

Residents can still obtain permits and defensible space inspections from the Red Mountain station, which will still have a captain on duty.

“We have had a great relationship with the local Cal Fire,” said Metcalf. “They have been a tremendous help, and I think this is just an illustration of how the fire fee doesn’t make sense. People are being charged $150 while they are closing fire stations. People aren’t going to be getting the same service; they’ll be getting less for the $150 they’re paying.”

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