Seal Beach will not have volunteer firefighters any more.
The Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Sunset Beach programs were eliminated, along with eight others, on Thursday, Sept. 23, by the Orange County Fire Authority Board of Directors.
According to news reports, the meeting lasted four hours before the board made the decision to essentially eliminate half the volunteer firefighter programs in the county.
In a previous Fire Authority staff report, staff recommended that the county eliminate the emergency response role for reserve (volunteer) firefighters in 11 communities.
The report also recommended that the county “develop a OCFA Citizen Fire Corps volunteer program to offer participation in a non-emergency response capability to community volunteers. This national program is utilized in many fire departments across the United States. Community volunteers are trained and utilized for incident support, fire prevention, community relations, and general assistance.”
The report also said reservists who wished to continue their emergency response roles could transfer to other units.
Volunteer firefighters are required to live within 10 minutes of their stations.
As previously reported in the Sun, the report estimated cutting the reserve program would save the county fire agency $636,331 annually.
The report also said reserve units were slow to respond to calls for service.
“These range from a high of 37 percent to a low of 5 percent,” the OCFA staff report said.
However, Seal Beach reserve firefighter Greg Winslow disputed the report.
Winslow, who serves out of Fire Station 44, pointed out that the report did not count the number of times that volunteers were called to the station, only to have the calls cancelled because another unit had arrived at the scene of an emergency.
Winslow also said many board members were former professional firefighters with a bias against volunteers.
The Fire Authority board voted to eliminate reserve firefighter programs at Station 2, Los Alamitos; Station 3, Sunset Beach; Station 10, Yorba Linda; Station 13, La Palma; Station 19, Lake Forest; Station 21, Tustin; Station 23, Villa Park; Station 24, Mission Viejo; Station 25, Midway City; Station 40, Coto de Caza and Station 44, Seal Beach.
The board voted to keep the programs at San Juan Capistrano; Station 11, Emerald Bay; Station 14, Silverado Canyon; Station 16, Modjeska Canyon; Station 18, Trabuco Canyon; Station 26, Irvine; Station 30, Dana Point; Station 32, Yorba Linda; Station 41, Fullerton Airport and Crew 18, Trabuco Canyon .
