Municipal Service Review: Fire and Emergency ... - City of Pinole

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY FIRE & EMS MSRS ERVICE D EMANDService providers reported responding to a total of 83,099 calls for service in the County in2007. 10 In other words, there were approximately 228 service calls throughout the County on anaverage day.Figure 3-1: Fire Department Service Calls by Type, 2007A majority of the calls(72 percent) were medical EBRPDemergencies and vehicle CAL FIREaccidents. Fire departments SRVFPDthroughout the County RHFPDprovide first-response MOFPDservice to EMS calls, and KFPDtypically arrive at the scene ECCFPDto assist the victim prior to CCFPDarrival of an ambulance. ConFireCalls for fire-related eventsPinole(structure, vehicle andRichmondwildland) and hazardousEl Cerritomaterials responseaccounted for 11 percent of0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%the incident volume. PublicEMS/Rescue Fire/Hazard False Alarm Otherassists and miscellaneousemergency and nonemergencyservice calls comprised 11 percent of all calls and false alarms consisted of six percent.The volume and type of service demand may vary between jurisdictions based on thepopulation’s age and access to primary health care, visitor counts, freeway miles and risk of wildlandfires within the agency’s boundaries.The City of Richmond and ConFire had the highest percentage of calls for EMS service at 76and 75 percent respectively, as shown in Figure 3-1. CAL FIRE and East Bay Regional Park Districthad the highest percentage of fire service calls (structure, vehicle and wildland), as they specialize inwildland firefighting. Fire departments with extensive wildland areas and wildfire hazard severityareas tended to have a higher percentage of fire-related calls, for example Crockett-Carquinez FPD(21 percent) and ECCFPD (16 percent).The hilly western and central areas of the County have many areas with high to very high firehazard ranking for wildland fires, according to CAL FIRE. The wildland interface areas—wherestructures and development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuel—areexpanding as more people are building homes in such areas. The hazardous fire ranking system isbased on models of rate of spread, fireline intensity, heat per unit area and other fire characteristics.10 The number of calls for service may be slightly overstated, as more than one of the dispatching agencies may report a call to whichmultiple agencies responded. Excluded from the total are calls within Concord Naval Weapons Station and Camp Parks, as well asthose handled by private fire brigades.34PREPARED FOR CONTRA COSTA LAFCO