Santa Rosa Fire Station Deployment February 20, 2004

The Santa Rosa Fire Department is responsible for protecting life, property, and the environment from fire, explosion and hazardous materials incidents. The Fire Department responds to calls including structure, wild land and other fires, medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, automobile accidents, and citizen calls for other assistance.

The Santa Rosa General Plan adopted by the City Council on June 18, 2002 establishes as Policy under PSF-E-1: “Provide for citizen safety through expedient response to emergency calls”. It continues: “The fire response goal is 4 minutes to 80 percent of emergency calls, 5 minutes to 90 percent of emergency calls, and 6 minutes or less to all emergency calls”. This response goal is not being met. Emergency response times are as follows: For 2002, actual performance across all 9 Santa Rosa area fire stations was: a. 4 minutes or less 32% of the time vs. 80% goal b. 5 minutes or less 62% of the time vs. 90% goal c. 6 minutes or less 86% of the time vs. 100% goal.

The City operates eight fire stations including (under agreement dated December 20, 1977 and February 8, 1983) the Roseland Fire Protection District station. Both of these agreements state that the City will provide fire protection service in the District consistent with the fire protection provided within the City limits. The City also has an agreement with the Rincon Valley Fire District which integrates its station into the citywide response matrix.

In 1982 the last City fire station was constructed, Station 2 located on Stony Point Road. Since then, the City’s population has grown from 88,100 in 1982, to 151,900 in 2002, or about 72% growth. And during that same period, the number of emergency calls per year to the Fire Department increased from 4,709 to 16,301, or more than 246% - three times faster than the population growth rate.

In October 1999 the Fire Department prepared the Final 2-In/2-Out Report in response to a January, 1998 OSHA and subsequently May, 1999 Cal OSHA mandate requiring all firefighters to wear Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, to operate in a “buddy system” and station more than one firefighter outside when firefighters are inside of a burning building making an interior attack on a structure fire. Based on this report the City funded additional personnel and equipment. In addition the Fire Department proposed that a Fire Station Locations and Deployment Analysis be undertaken.

The City authorized the Santa Rosa Fire Station Location & Deployment Study – Final Report which was completed by an outside consultant and provided to the City Council in Study Session on March 26, 2002. In order to meet the City’s established goals for emergency response times, the study recommended that various fire stations be relocated 3/6 February 20, 2004 and that three new stations be constructed. All of these projects are currently in the City’s “Capital Improvement Program” (CIP), but to date have not been funded. Those

Impact fees have been and are continuing to be collected to fund the construction of fire stations in Southwest and Southeast Santa Rosa. The relocation of fire stations, however, is not being funded by the impact fees collected.

During the ten year period ending 2002, the population in the Southwest area grew at three times the rate of the City of Santa Rosa [62.4% vs. 20.9%]. Response time in that area is among the longest in the City because the majority of the growth has taken place in the outer boundaries of Fire Station 8 which serves that area. The following tables compare the number of emergency calls and response times over a six year period for Station 8 to Santa Rosa city-wide: Station 8 (SW Area) Santa Rosa City-wide 4 min. 5 min. 6 min. 4 min. 5 min. 6 min. or less or less or less or less or less or less (goal is (goal is (goal is (goal is (goal is (goal is 80%) 90%) 100%) 80%) 90%) 100%) 2002 414 819 1263 2002 3880 7490 10432 (27%) (54%) (83%) (32%) (62%) (86%) 1997 393 724 1035 1997 3271 5903 8120 (29%) (53%) (75%) (33%) (60%) (83%) Conclusions Because of the large population increase and longer response times in Southwest Santa Rosa, there appears to be an immediate need to relocate station 8 and construct a new station on Northpoint Parkway. The City will need to be more creative in the deployment of Fire Department personnel to staff an additional station in the Southwest Area. Because of possible operating budget restraints it may be necessary to spread engine companies in order to staff the additional station and thereby provide resources closer to the response area. Emergency response times will never meet the goals stated in the General Plan until the remaining recommendations in the Santa Rosa Fire Station Location & Deployment Study – Final Report (see F6 above) are fully implemented. 4/6 February 20, 2004