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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 11011988 - IO.3 TO: ' BOARD OF SUPERVISORS I. 0. 3 FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE V�(JI Itra `� October 24, 1988 WIQ DATE'. COJ "J Issues Relating to the SUBJECT: Byron Fire Protection District SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS 1 . Request the Chief of the Byron Fire Protection District to advise the County Administrator as soon as the conversion of the 1986 tanker to serve as a pumper-tanker is completed and the Chief is convinced that the 1986 pumper-tanker will adequately serve the needs of the district. 2 . Request the Chief of the East Diablo Fire Protection District, the Chief of the Byron Fire Protection District, and the County Administrator to chart out the responses by the Byron Fire Protection District in a situation where there is a fire at the Byron School where the tanker must operate in a "dump and run" mode, unloading its water, returning to the Byron Fire Station for more water, and then returning to the f ire. The purpose of this exercise is to show, from the point that an alarm is received, which unit. or units respond first, when they will reach the fire, when the East Diablo Fire District is called in to a fire, what their response time is and whether it is, in fact, true that the Byron Fire District tanker will return with more water and/or the East Diablo Fire District will arrive on the scene before the Byron Fire District runs out of water. Request the County Administrator to review the results of the response analyses with one or more other County Fire Chiefs and report the results of this investigation to the 1989 Internal Operations Committee by May 1, 1989. 3 . Request the County Administrator to propose aIprocedure to the Board of Supervisors for the disposal of surplus fire district equipment which insures that no equipment is declared surplus and is disposed of until the Fire Commission owning the equipment and the Board of Supervisors agree to the transfer of the equipment and that no transfer occurs until every other fire district in the county has had an opportunity to indicate a need for the equipment. 4 . Request that the County Administrator, or his designee, meet with the Chief of the Byron Fire Protection District, the Chief of the' East Diablo Fire Protection District, and the CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDAT N OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR —k RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE X APPROVE OTHER hm sIGNAruRE sunne W.S WMcPeak� Tom Torlakson nI ACTION OF BOARD ON November 1 , 1988 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES' NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. CC: County Administrator ATTESTED _�� �, /OFF Chiefs, Byron FPD & East Diablo FPD Board of Commissioners, Byron FPD PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Discovery Bay Homeowners' Association SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Supt. , Byron School District Terry McGraw, CAO' s Office BY ,DEPUTY M382/7-83 Page 2 4 . (continued) Superintendent of the Byron School District to discuss the advantages of having the Byron School install their own water tank to be available solely for fire emergency purposes and report to our Committee on the agreements reached in the meeting. 5 . Request the County Administrator to indicate to the Byron Fire Protection District Board of Fire Commissioners the Board of Supervisors ' interest in the Commissioners considering the advisability of the District becoming a District with full-time paid firefighters for which the residents of the district tax themselves. Request that the Commission advise the 1989 Internal Operations Committee of their thinking on this issue by May 1, 1989 . BACKGROUND: On July 26, 1988, the Board of Supervisors approved several recommendations from our Committee relating to the Byron Fire Protection District. On October 24, 1988, our Committee received the attached reports from the County Administrator' s Office and the Chief of the East Diablo Fire Protection District. Also at our meeting were residents of the Byron Fire Protection District and members of the Byron Fire Protection District Board of Fire Commissioners. There was considerable discussion regarding the need for the Byron Fire Protection District to retain the 1955 tanker in order to adequately respond to fires in the district. There were also disputes regarding the speed with which the East Diablo Fire Protection District would be able to respond to a fire at, for instance, the Byron School. Concern was again expressed about whether the 1986 tanker was, in fact, operational and was able to meet the needs of the district. There was also disagreement expressed regarding whether the Byron School should install a water tank to be used in case of a f ire and whether this would relieve the Fire District of the need for additional tanker capacity. Members of the Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners disputed whether the Commissioners had ever agreed to declare the 1966 tanker surplus, raising questions regarding the process which is used in declaring such property surplus. As a result of these differences of opinion regarding the facts of several situations, our Committee has made the above recommendations which we hope will clear the air regarding the facts involved and clarify the extent to which the Byron Fire Protection District is adequately providing for the needs of its residents. One possibility which we believe it is time to explore is the conversion of the Byron Fire Protection District from a volunteer district to a fully paid and staffed district, for which the residents should be asked to tax themselves. We got very positive indications from the Discovery Bay residents who were present that this, in fact, was a realistic possibility , from their point of view and should be further explored by the Board of Fire Commissioners. OFFICE OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CONTRA COSTA COUNTY Administration Building Martinez, California Internal Operations Committee October 19 , 1988 Supervisor Sunne McPeak To: Supervisor Tom Torlakson Date: Phil Batchelor, County Administrator STATUS OF BYRON FIRE PROTECTION From: By: Terrence J. raw, Subject: DISTRICT WATER TANKER RECOMMENDATION': Approve report of the County Administrator regarding the status of the Byron Fire Protection District Water Tanker. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact related to this issue. BACKGROUND/REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION: The issue of the Byron tanker came before your Committee in connection with your review of the proposal to establish a development fee for the District in July, 1988 . Some of the residents of the Byron Fire District attending the July meeting of your Committee expressed concerns about the capabilities of the District' s water tanker(s) with respect to the ability of the District to provide adequate water to fight structure fires in the Byron area of the District. Accordingly, your Committee requested the County Administrator to provide a report on the status of the Byron tanker. The District currently has two water tankers. One is a 1955 model, which was scheduled for replacement and the subject tanker that was acquired in 1986 to replace the 1955 truck. Prior to acquiring the 1986 tanker, the District had a 1966 tanker in addition to the 1955 tanker scheduled for replacement. After the District received the new tanker, in 1986 , it was decided to get rid of the 1966 tanker as well as the 1955 tanker because the new taker had a water capacity of 4,000 gallons, which exceeded the combined capacity of the two older tankers. The 1966 tanker, which still had some useful life, was transferred to the East Diablo Fire Protection District. Byron has retained the 1955 tanker as a backup to the new tanker while it was undergoing correction of some manufacturing defects and being phased into the operations of the District. Since the District received the new tanker in early 1986, there have been concerns expressed by some of the fire fighters, commissioners, v' Internal Operations Committee -2- October 19, 1988 and residents of the District about the new water tanker' s capabilities and limitations and the plan to dispose of the 1955 tanker. During training and testing procedures, it was decided that the tanker pump, which was designed to handle a high volume of water, did not produce enough pressure to pump water at an adequate rate for any distance. Although water tankers are usually equipped with pumps designed to handle a large amount of water at low pressure, it was decided to convert the pump to a high pressure pump which will make the unit more versatile. The truck can also function as a pumper to either pump water to fight fires or to hook up to a pumper to provide a high pressure water supply for fighting fires in remote locations that may be inaccessible to a tanker. The tanker is currently undergoing conversion of the pump. Another concern expressed about the limitations of the new tanker had to do with the fact that drivers of the vehicle are required to have a special (Class 2) drivers license to operate the vehicle. Additionally, the fire chief requires that drivers have a certain amount of training and experience before being authorized to drive the tanker. There are currently six fire fighters in the Byron area that are licensed and authorized by the Chief to drive the vehicle. Based on District records, there has always been at least one driver available on the occasions when the water tanker was needed to respond to an incident. Although the number of qualified drivers has been adequate, Chief Papadakos is continuing to encourage other volunteer fire fighters to obtain the necessary Class 2 drivers license and become qualified to drive the vehicle. Several months ago a controversy developed over the proposal to eventually dispose of the 1955 tanker. Although the original plan of the District was to replace the two older tankers with the tanker required in 1986 upon it becoming fully operationally, certain fire fighters, residents of the District and members of the Byron Fire Commission believe that the District needs two water tankers in the Byron station. Because of this concern, the District submitted a request for Special District Augmentation Funds to replace the 1955 tanker. The request was reviewed by the County Fire Chiefs ' Association Capital Improvement Committee. The Committee denied the request of the District for the replacement tanker. The recommendations of the Capital Improvement Committee for capital funding for 1988-1989 were subsequently approved by the Finance Committee and the Board of Supervisors. The Capital Improvement Committee denied the request of the District on the basis that the 1986 tanker was justified and acquired as a replacement for the 1955 tanker. Therefore, the 1955 tanker could not be used as justification to acquire a second new tanker. Additionally, it was the opinion of the Committee that the District did not need a second tanker because of the capabilities of the 1986 tanker and the availability of backup tankers from other surrounding districts. Internal Operations Committee -3- October 19, 1988 Reliance on the single large tanker in the Byron Station for fire response is reasonable from the standpoint of fire fighting capabilities. In the event of a structure fire in the Byron area, the Byron Station would respond to the incident with two pumpers - which carry their own water supply as well as the 4,000 gallon water trunk. A pumper from the Discovery Bay Station and a tanker from East Diablo Fire as backup to the Byron tanker would also respond. Upon arriving at the fire, the pumpers would set up to begin applying water to the fire. An evaluation would be made to as to the amount of water required to extinguish the fire. The tanker would be. used to supply additional water to the pumpers if necessary. If it was determined that additional water would be needed, the tanker would be used in the "dump and run mode" . The water truck would set up its 4,000 gallon portable holding tank and dump its water supply into.- the tank. The water truck would then leave to replenish its water supply for return to the scene of the fire. Although the water supply :at;the scene of the fire could be exhausted before the Byron tanker truck returns with additional water, the East Diablo tanker would arrive on the scene in time to maintain the water supply. If additional equipment and/or water was needed, the County' s mutual aid plan would be activated to obtain the necessary support. ,; Under this scenario, there would be an adequate amount of water on the scene to either put out the f ire or to contain the f ire from spreading to adjacent buildings. TMG:gm CC: Byron School Board of Trustees (K. Hemilhock, Superintendent) { Discovery Bay Property Owners Association (e/o Mr. McDonald) Byron Chamber of Commerce (A. Templeton) Byron Fire Commission EAST DIABLO Fire Protection District 745 First Street Post Office Box S4O Paul Hein Brentwood, C/\ 94513 Fire Chief (415) 634-3400 To : Internal Operations Committee From: Paul Hein Fire Chief East Diablo Fire Protection District Subject : Mutual Aid response (Byron school ) ========================================================== There was a concern voiced as to Byron Fire District 's ability to deliver an adequate supply of water , if there was a major fire at the Byron school . The school receives ' its water from an on sight well and has no way to supply water to the fire district equipment . The Byron Fire District has one 4,000 Gallon water tender which would be used to supply water for a major fire at the school . The water tender would have to return to the B�ron station # 97 to refill , which would take about ten minutes to get back to the school . The long term solution to this problem would be to install a water tank , of at l thousand gallons to be used for fire fighting at the school . At the present time, the Byron school and the - Fire District are looking into the possibility of installing such a tank on the school property. For the short term, East Diablo Fire District has agreed to supply one water tender on the initial alarm, to any fire at the Byron school . The East Diablo Water Tender would be responding from Brentwood with a travel time of seven to ten minutes. Additional water tenders also could be sent from the East Diablo station on Marsh Creek Rd . if needed . I feel that the answer to the water supply problem, short of a city water system would be, a large water supply tank on site. Until this can occur , East Diablo Fire will continue to respond with Byron to the school with a water tender . Si l PAUL HEIN ' -~ Fire Chief 'OCT 181988' QA/IO101788.mem