Worries if Cal Fire pulls out of wildland areas
Thursday, February 3, 2011
There were no flames on this day, but training is essential to this California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection crew. Deocariza's Cal Fire unit covers parts of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties and protects thousands of residents living among the trees on the outskirts of Woodside in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
But this tight-knit firefighting crew out of Skylonda Station, on Skyline Boulevard near the intersection with Highway 84, might have to abandon the hillside communities they protect because of California's budget crisis.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a plan that would shift to local fire departments the responsibility for fighting fires - and providing emergency aid - in wildlands where homes have sprung up in recent decades.
It is part of Brown's attempt to reduce a $25.4 billion budget deficit over the next 17 months. The Democrat says the state will not pass off duties without providing sufficient means to pay for them, and his proposal sets aside $250 million to help local governments pay for the additional firefighting responsibilities.
But Bay Area fire officials wonder whether the money is enough to prepare local firefighters sufficiently to deal with the kind of wildland fire situations normally handled by Cal Fire.
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