Wow, what a coincidence. I'm assigned to Co. 17 as well, albeit on the other side of the country. We run 2 engines, a light truck, a squad, a medic unit and a breathing support out of our house. Combination paid/volunteer.

That old LaFrance open cab is sweet.......but they look better in fire engine red.

 

cowhand, does your station have a webpage? i like looking up rural and small stations just to see how they function........

 

No, no station web page. It's not exactly a small rural station. I work for CDF/Riverside County. Riverside County has 92 stations, we're the second largest county in CA. We are run by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is the largest fire department in the country.

 

ah my mistake.
i work for Va. Dept. of Forestry, i have wondered how the CDF/.... stations work, are they staffed by cdf or does cdf supply the equipment of both?

 

Depends on the contract....Riverside County contracts with CDF for fire protection services, we cover the unincorporated areas and some contract cities as well. We also have state forest fire stations within the county. The unincorporated areas run the gamut from wildland interface to residential to commercial/light industrial.

To answer your question, contract cities/areas are covered by Type 1 (Structural) engines, truck co.'s, etc., and the equipment is owned by the county and manned by CDF. State stations are covered by Type 3 (Brush) engines, dozers, tenders, etc. owned by the state and manned by CDF. We also have a few Type 2's which are sort of a cross between a Type 1 and 3, these cover some of the interface areas.

Having said that, I'm on a Type 1 and I respond to anything burning, anywhere. My engine isn't quite the pavement queen our other engine is, so it'll go off-road within reason. Not uncommon to respond to several vegetation fires and a structure during the summer, plus the usual medical aids. We're one of the busiest houses in the county, we ran just over 3900 calls last year (2 engines, a truck and a squad). County wide CDF/RivCo ran over 110K.

That's it in a nutshell........

 

thats sounds like the paid stations in our neighboring city, with the exception of the vegetation fires, they may run a few mulch fires but nothing substantial. I wouldnt mind a job at paid station, but i enjoy my current job, i get all the wildfire i want, plus i get to do the forestry and water quality thing (logger police) as someone once put it and i get the mvc and structure fire calls at the volun. station. Besides i dont really have much interest in med calls, even though i am and emt-b.