We’re hearing about the merging of fire protection districts, but let’s focus on Julian, which has no plans to merge any of their THREE, yes, THREE fire agencies. You have the Julian/Cuyamaca Volunteer FD, which has a chief, and you have the CalFire station that has two, yes, TWO chiefs, One Cal Fire and one from the County’s fire authority (Which has no station, well, as of now). I’ve been told that the volunteer FD handles structural fires and CalFire fights the wildland fires, but both will respond together. But what exactly does the County fire authority chief do?
In this effort to save money, wouldn’t it make more sense to shut down the volunteer FD and only operate the CalFire station? Also, why do we need so many chiefs?
So I’d like to know the justification for so many Fire Chiefs and the need for 3 different fire agencies for such a small area. Shouldn’t government be consolidating to save money instead of expanding it or keeping it as status quo just to keep bureaucrats happy? My vote would go to CalFire to run the whole thing.