San Diego County - SDRFSF - 13-page analysis

Wildfire panel to release findings - Priority 1 should be to fund a consolidated, regional fire department and More taxes needed!

The San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum is expected to announce its recommendations for improving fire protection.

The San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum believes it has the answers to the county's wildfire problems.

Recommendations include buying 50 more fire engines, hiring hundreds of additional firefighters and establishing a county-wide fire department.

The city council will also be discussing acquiring a second fire and rescue helicopter.

“Priority 1 should be to fund a consolidated, regional fire department,” the group's list of recommendations says.

Former San Diego Fire Chief Jeff Bowman, the forum's chairman, said the group would formally release its 13-page analysis this morning at a news conference.

Bowman said San Diego is completely unprepared for a massive firestorm.

The forum is one of three local wildfire committees addressing similar problems.

All agree that the county is woefully underprepared for the type of wildfires that killed 10 people and destroyed 1,700 homes in San Diego County in October.

After a handful of meetings, the 11-member forum zeroed in on 11 issues, including leadership, accountability, staffing, equipment, aerial assets and brush management. Short-and long-term goals were suggested.

Bowman said the goal was to educate the public, which is why the group is holding its news conference in Rancho Bernardo. All 365 homes lost in the city of San Diego in October were in Rancho Bernardo. “Public opinion and public pressure drives politicians,” Bowman said.
“And the politicians have gotten away with murder when it comes to fire protection.”

Bowman resigned as the city's fire chief nearly two years ago primarily because he couldn't get the improvements he wanted. Bowman, a dogged critic, said the forum's report isn't as blistering as it could have been.

“We focused on recommendations that we think are doable,” he said.

Show us the money! - Although finances are covered in the report, the analysis doesn't say who should pay for the improvements or where the money should come from.

Fire experts, including Bowman, have said a new sales tax would probably be needed to finance a regional fire department, an idea that has been discussed for years. But turf battles inevitably arise, leaving San Diego County one of the largest and most populous counties in the nation without its own regional fire department.

If the public doesn't rally behind the forum's findings, Bowman would like to see local fire chiefs and politicians use it as a blueprint for change.

A group co-chaired by county Supervisor Ron Roberts and Mayor Jerry Sanders is trying to answer some of the same questions covered by Bowman's group, and Roberts said he would like to work with the former fire chief.

A third local wildfire committee, chaired by San Diego Councilman Brian Maienschein, has focused on city-related issues.

Sources: (1) (2)