Review of 2022 at North County Fire

Keith McReynolds

Fire Chief

North County Fire Protection District

What an honor it is for me to serve as Fire Chief of the North County Fire Protection District. Over the last year, we have been an agency on the move, growing and exploring new ways to raise the standard of public service excellence our community has come to expect.

Fire station renovation and construction has been a top priority for us this year and will be next year as well. We are finishing up an interior and exterior renovation at Fire Station #2 on Winterwarm Drive and preparing to launch the renovation of Fire Station #3 in the Rainbow Valley. We are also continuing with preliminary engineering on a future Fire Station #4 (Pala Mesa), which will be a complete station replacement.

Another area of accomplishment this year was organizational strategic planning. For the first time in over 20-years, our organization conducted a standards-of-cover analysis and created a 5-year Strategic Plan with a 20-year long range outlook. This plan can be found in its entirety at our website, https://www.ncfire.org/.

In addition to strategic planning, we have been busy actively recruiting top talent. We have hired a new Deputy Fire Marshal, Board Clerk/Exec Admin. Assistant, Fleet Supervisor, firefighters, and multiple single role EMT’s and paramedics. Currently, all our positions are staffed, a sign that we can not only recruit but retain our people, a strong sign of a healthy organization. Our funding is sound, our budget is balanced allowing for maintenance and growth, and our young workforce is eager to meet the needs of our growing community.

The North County Fire family thanks all of you for your continued support and invite you to stop in anytime to say hello and meet our firefighters in any of our fire stations. As I always say to our force, “we are not here for me, we are here for we, and we are here for them,” which is of course all of you.

On behalf of my lovely wife Erin and the entire McReynolds family, we wish you and yours a wonderful and safe holiday season.