When most people think of San Diego, their perception is based on a brief visit to the city of San Diego for a conference or vacation. In the same manner, when the media focuses on fire protection in San Diego, they often focus on San Diego Fire Rescue — the fire department serving the big city — and use that same broad brush to paint the rest of the county.

Recent blogs have commented on the state of fire protection in the San Diego area and made some broad generalizations — most of them negative. In reality, San Diego is a huge county that encompasses an incredibly diverse geographic and demographic mix. It also includes a broad spectrum of fire-protection delivery mechanisms.

Know the Area

San Diego County is one of 58 counties in California. It is the southernmost county, bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by Mexico, on the east by Imperial County, and on the north by Orange and Riverside counties. The county stretches for 65 miles from north to south and 86 miles from east to west, covering more than 4,500 square miles of land and water. Latest population estimates state that more than 3 million people call San Diego their home. That makes San Diego County the fifth-most-populous county in the United States and third-most-populous in California (behind Los Angeles and Orange counties). There are 18 incorporated cities — where more than 90% of the county’s population resides — 17 unincorporated communities, 18 federally recognized Native American reservations, and a huge area of very rural land in the eastern half of the county where population is very thin. A significant piece of the county is owned by the federal government, including the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and several major military installations.
Fire protection in San Diego County is provided by more than 60 separate agencies, including the federal government (USFS and BLM), state government (CAL FIRE), civilian federal fire departments at the major military installations, and tribal and local governments. A recent study by Citygate Associates identified that on a daily basis, there are 914 career firefighters deployed on 460 pieces of apparatus in 264 fire stations. These numbers do not include more than 700 volunteer firefighters in the county or the military firefighters. Total alarms exceed 260,000 per year.

At first glance, most fire-service professionals would say that San Diego has a very complex fire-protection system. There are lots of moving parts and the system has lots of inefficiencies due to the large number of relatively small fire departments. Almost without exception, those of us in the San Diego fire service would agree that our current system isn’t the optimal configuration. If we had the opportunity to design a system from scratch for San Diego, it is safe to say that it would not look like it does today. But as is often the case, there is a long backstory that explains why it is what it is.

Where We Came From

Formal fire protection was non-existent in the late-1800s. Most of the incorporated cities developed fire protection as they were created and once the county decided to get into the fire-protection business, it accomplished its mission by contracting with the California Department of Forestry for more than 50 years. However, in the 1970s, a series of political and economic events drove San Diego County to intentionally exit the fire-protection business. Basically, the county said that if you wanted fire protection in your community, it was up to you to provide it — and the county subsequently cut off most funding and support.

That led to dramatic growth in fire-protection agencies. In addition to the 18 incorporated city fire departments, 17 independent fire-protection districts were formed, as were a whole host of small independent volunteer fire departments. Although no one necessarily thought that this was the best approach for fire protection, it was political reality and the fire-service professionals in the region set about making the system work.

In recent years, particularly since the devastating wildfires of 2003 and 2007, there has been significant public and media scrutiny focused on regional fire protection. The result is a fire service that is making tremendous strides in cooperation and consolidation.

From the operational perspective, with very few exceptions, the region’s fire agencies function as one large department. There is a countywide mutual-aid agreement that ensures that resources can be shared quickly and legally. There are now just four regional public-safety answering points that handle dispatching functions for the many different fire agencies. Additionally, these dispatch centers are being connected via Homeland Security funds to improve interoperability between agencies and provide a common operational picture during routine and catastrophic emergencies.

The entire county functions on a single 800 MHz trunked radio system, including CAL FIRE, which uses on the system on a daily basis, but also maintains a VHF system to be compatible with their operations elsewhere in the state. Just about all agencies operate under the “closest unit” dispatch philosophy, where organizational boundaries are irrelevant — the closest unit to an incident is dispatched, regardless of jurisdiction. The county has unified almost all of the rural fire agencies into a county fire authority and contracts with CAL FIRE to provide administrative oversight and training. In the north county, 13 agencies function under a common Emergency Operations Manual (EOM) that describes everything from roof operations to hose loads on engines.

In the east county, a group of fire agencies has come together to create a very successful regional training organization. Countywide and regional training takes place on a regular basis. Many departments have conducted detailed standards-of-cover assessments and have active plans in place to close the gaps between goals and current performance. The Vista Fire Department just received accreditation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence. Even in the city of San Diego — where the financial situation has resulted in nationwide attention — San Diego Fire Rescue hasn’t hidden from its problems. Instead it has conducted detailed assessments of their resource deployment situation and publicly disclosed both the problems and the recommended solutions. In addition, while in the midst of the most difficult of economic situations, the big city has resisted the urge to be the 800-pound gorilla and dominate the local fire service. Instead, under the last several fire chiefs, the city has become a significant partner in the process of unifying and enhancing fire protection in the region.

Politics Not Aside

In the political environment, an active San Diego County Fire Chiefs Association and Fire Districts Association have actively worked with county and local government to enhance fire protection. The state Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) has conducted several exhaustive studies seeking better ways to organize and deliver fire protection — particularly in the underserved east county. The LAFCO initiatives have stimulated the county of San Diego to get back into the fire-protecton business, albeit slowly. Starting from a small effort to fund county-owned firefighting helicopters, the effort has grown into a full-fledged county fire authority that has consolidated administrative oversight of the myriad independent volunteer agencies.

There are several ongoing initiatives among local governments aimed at increasing efficiencies and effectiveness. In the southern and eastern suburbs of San Diego, the communities of El Cajon, Lemon Grove and La Mesa already have consolidated the top level of their fire departments under a common chief and senior staff, with an eye toward possible future full consolidation. The East County Fire Protection District successfully has consolidated with the San Miguel Fire District. North of San Diego, a group of coastal communities including Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe and Solana Beach are sharing duty battalion chiefs, training and administrative functions.

All of these different activities are narrowly focused on the goal of not just maintaining, but also improving, the delivery of fire-protection services in San Diego County. Although the county’s fire-protection system may look disjointed and disorganized from an external perspective, the reality is that it is made up of a lot of very talented people who are completely focused on delivering the best emergency services possible, given the political and economic environment that exists today. Would we draw it up this way if we were starting from scratch? Not likely. But we also are not sitting back — satisfied with good enough. Instead, the fire service in the San Diego region actively is moving forward to enhance fire protection for the citizens and visitors to the county.

When you make your next (or first) visit to San Diego, as you arrive by cruise ship, airplane or highway, imagine the challenges involved in providing comprensive fire and emergency services in such a complex and diverse region. Know that there are a dedicated group of fire-service professionals hard at work to join together a previously fractured and disjointed group of independent agencies into a well-oiled fire-service machine. We didn’t make it the way it is, but we are absolutely focused on making it better.

Bill Metcalf is the fire chief for the North County Fire Protection District in the San Diego suburb of Fallbrook, Calif. He also serves on the board of directors of the International Association of Fire Chiefs as its treasurer.

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