CAL FIRE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS…UNDER FIRE

There is a storm brewing over the recent Canyon Lake voters’ decision to reject a special tax to maintain and staff their local fire station.  This storm has the potential of spreading like a wildfire and threatens to engulf our surrounding cities.

For additional details on the Canyon Lake issues please see:

http://lakeelsinore-wildomar.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/canyon-lakes-fire-woes-impacting-lake-elsinore  

Here is the key that should convince people that these concerns are NOT limited to just Lake Elsinore and Canyon Lake.  "Under a current cooperative service area agreement with Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department, Lake Elsinore does provide some fire protection service to Canyon Lake and that city is supposed to reciprocate."

Other cities like Wildomar are operating under a Cal Fire - Riverside County Fire Department cooperative agreement too, and no pun intended, they are all playing with fire.  The assumption that there will be cooperation and reciprocation is a mighty risky one.  Sure it works some of the time and hopefully most of the time, but to assume it will work ALL of the time is a big gamble.  One really serious fire or a wildfire that spreads swiftly could prove to be a full blown disaster.

Many surrounding cities are coming out of a decade or more of paring down their public safety personnel and emergency facilities and equipment – while at the same time they are experiencing tremendous growth.  They have cast aside their primary duties to plan for citizens’ safety and the protection of our properties.  They have entered into these cooperative agreements to save money.  The result of dependency on this stratagem is fewer police, fire fighters and paramedics and the resources they need to perform effectively.  

There are other considerations we should be factoring into our emergency planning which are pretty much being ignored.  In general, our cities' populations are increasing rapidly, and more and older residents will likely place greater demand on emergency paramedic services which represent the largest portion of calls.

There will come a day when this scheme collapses like a house of cards.  Safety personal and equipment can only be stretched so far.  What happens when calls for the same kind of assistance come in simultaneously?  You can only send local equipment and personnel in one direction at any given time, and who wants to be the one who has to wait for the reciprocal agreement to kick in and endure the delayed response time for help to arrive?