A consultant for the Central County Fire Department Chief wants to reopen station 36 on the eastside of Burlingame as the city plans for commercial and residential development, and concerns are growing over a staffing shortage that could eventually affect service.
Bruce Barron
Both Millbrae and Burlingame have planned to redevelop Rollins Road and the eastside into a mixed-use neighborhood, providing thousands of homes and commercial development but the rapid growth concerns Fire Chief Bruce Barron, who told the City Council of the recommendation to reopen station 36, which is being used as an administration building, during a meeting Wednesday, July 5.
“Because the two of our busiest stations are station 37 and station 34, and station 36 is on the east side of the tracks and it could take up a lot of slack from those two stations which are pretty busy,” Barron said.
But station 36 is in poor condition along with multiple other stations, all of which are an average of 54 years old. CCFD administered a report and results showed that four of the seven stations were rated to be in fair condition and three were rated poor condition. And the administration facility at Station 36 is considered inadequate and not intended for modern administrative work. All The station facilities are owned by the cities of Burlingame, Hillsborough and Millbrae, according to a presentation.
The CCFD is a joint powers authority that serves around 65,000 residents in Burlingame, Millbrae and Hillsborough. Its services include fire, emergency medical services, wildland fire response and specialty rescue services. Results from the study show the department's turnout times for emergency medical services is an average of 2 minutes and 37 seconds and for fire response it is 3 minutes and 17 seconds, below the National Fire Protection Association 4 minute standard, according to the presentation.
However, the department staffs only three firefighters per fire engine when the NFPA recommends four person staffing per engine as the standard practice. It would mean the department would need 21 additional firefighters to meet that standard.
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Mayor Michael Brownrigg believes three firefighters on an engine is sufficient because a wide percentage of the emergency calls are for EMS not structural fires. He added that keeping the staffing at three firefighters makes a financial difference for the city.
Barron said three versus four firefighters changes how the department operates.
“I served as truck captain for about five years and I did about half the amount of work with four and double the amount of work with four, it’s just how you can conquer and divide your team up,” Barron said.
Note to readers:This story has been changed to reflect that a consultant advised the Chief Bruce Barron to reopen station 36.
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