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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Napa County Grand Jury • 2001-2002

Fire Department – Napa County

12 pages
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Findings 7 findings

F1 Page 46
The NCFD Volunteers consist of approximately 250 dedicated and hard- working men and women who spend many unpaid hours training and working for their local communities in fire prevention programs, fire protection and medical emergency calls. COMMENDATION The Grand Jury commends the volunteers in the NCFD for their long hours of service and training dedicated to the safety and support of our communities. The value of this currently unpaid work force is significant and should be acknowledged by our community.
F2 Page 47
There are problems with volunteer firefighter recruitment and retention in Napa County. Several volunteer stations are short on numbers of volunteers. In recent years, the number of persons interested in volunteer firefighting has been decreasing. Each year, as our County population increases, the volunteer stations in NCFD are called upon to increase their workload. Data confirm that most stations are making more calls each year. The annually increasing call- out rate is wearing on many of the volunteers. Recruiting and staffing of volunteer stations has become more difficult for most of the chiefs (there are a couple of exceptions to this where local community support is very strong). This difficulty is due to a combination of factors, including the rigorous training and certification required by the State, the time commitment necessary, problems with access to affordable housing in Napa County, and the fact that volunteer firefighters are not paid. At some stations, high volunteer turnover rate keeps training sessions to basics. Many younger volunteers eventually quit volunteer work to join paid fire departments or to pursue other paying jobs. Emergency calls during Monday-Friday daytime hours are the most challenging for most volunteer fire stations. Most of the volunteers are not readily available during those hours because they are working at their regular jobs, sometimes located out of area. Evenings and weekends are generally easier to staff.
F3 Page 48
Central Dispatch located in the City of Napa initially receives most emergency “911” calls. For the unincorporated areas of Napa County, medical emergency and fire calls are then relayed to CDF Dispatch in St Helena. These calls are then relayed again to the appropriate volunteer firefighters via pagers or local community sirens. There have been delays of 8 minutes and longer from when a County resident dials 911 until the call is relayed to the volunteer station staff. A response time of 5 minutes or less to arrive on scene in order to initiate CPR or defibrillation is the goal generally accepted by most rescue agencies. CDF Dispatch is a complex system. When CDF initiated dispatching for the combined six-county CDF Ranger Unit, many observers felt that NCFD dispatching decreased in quality. Dispatchers have made errors when dispatching some NCFD Volunteer station fire engines. This has been either the result of inexperienced CDF Dispatch personnel, or from faulty information listed in the CAD (Computer Assisted Dispatch). There have been incidents of dispatchers sending the wrong fire engines to County fires or medical emergencies because they do not know all the proper dispatch tones or areas of responsibility for the volunteer stations. Some volunteer chiefs have had difficulty getting CDF dispatch administrators or supervisors to acknowledge and address these dispatch errors.
F4 Page 49
CDF training for volunteers has been inconsistent, partly due to the fact that the CDF Training Officers have been transferred or promoted every two years on average. This constant turnover has created prolonged vacancies in the position at times and has led to poor continuity in volunteer training sessions provided by CDF. Many volunteer chiefs describe the CDF Training Officer position as a “stepping stone” where qualified personnel are moved or promoted to other jobs after a short period of time. Some volunteer chiefs complained that CDF training personnel do not always show up when they are scheduled and do not seem to give much priority to volunteer training sessions. Some volunteer chiefs have been told that CDF cannot give training to volunteers in summer months, due to their own CDF staffing needs. One volunteer chief has learned to rely more on neighboring CDF fire station personnel for training than on the CDF administration. He arranges training directly with the CDF stations rather than using the CDF Training Officer. Other chiefs rely mostly on their own local volunteer training programs. The recent appointment of a volunteer firefighter to the CDF County Training Officer position may help alleviate these training problems. This will likely depend on how long he is kept in that position by CDF, and the quality of the volunteer training the CDF allows him to implement. County unincorporated area station volunteers are not paid for either CDF training sessions or local training sessions.
F5 Page 50
For most of fiscal year 2000-01, there was only one full-time employee at the CDF Maintenance Station in St. Helena providing all NCFD fire engine, emergency and routine equipment maintenance. Most of the volunteer chiefs think that this employee performs very well and does an excellent job, but he needs more help. There have been incidents of long waits (months) for routine maintenance service due to this staffing shortage. Some chiefs are waiting long periods for equipment testing and having to make do without equipment due to these delays. One full-time person staffs the CDF/NCFD warehouse and on occasion supply needs are slow to be filled. Usually there is no staffing of the warehouse on weekends. No data are published regarding the distribution of supplies to individual volunteer stations.
F6 Page 51
The concept outlined by the MOU where the volunteer chiefs act as a meaningful Volunteer Chief Advisory Board is not working well. The volunteer chiefs that are content with the current system are content because they are favored by receiving equipment requests and other CDF resources. Other volunteer chiefs are less content and believe that CDF has no interest in volunteer chief participation in running NCFD.
F7 Page 52
In last year’s NCFD Budget, there was a large surplus of revenue available at the end of the fiscal year. This is money that was not disbursed, but was “rolled over” into this year’s budget and is kept in an interest bearing Fire Protection Fund (1080). The amount of money in this fund was $3,278,727 as of 1/31/2002 according to the County Auditor.

Recommendations 7