San Diego Takes Step to Merge Fire Services

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 4 — A little more than a month after devastating wildfires swept through rural and suburban San Diego County, regional officials here have taken a step toward establishment of a consolidated countywide fire service.

San Diego is the last large county in California without a unified fire department. Instead, the 481,000 residents of the county’s 2.3 million-acre unincorporated area are protected by a hodgepodge of rural fire departments, volunteers and state firefighting agencies. It is an arrangement that some local fire chiefs have fought fiercely to retain but that critics say has hampered preparedness to handle wildfires.

“Why have 10 or 15 fire chiefs, from 10 or 15 different departments, when you could simply have one chief and enhance efficiency?” said Augie Ghio, fire chief of the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District, one of the county’s largest rural firefighting districts.

The consolidation movement here appeared to gain ground in the wake of the wildfires of 2003, the deadliest in the state’s recent history. The fires burned 280,000 acres. Fifteen people died, including one firefighter, and 2,232 homes burned. The debate was renewed in October, when 10 people died and 350,000 acres burned as fires, fueled by Santa Ana winds, tore through the county.

The San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission, which helps shape the county’s public agencies, voted 7 to 1 Monday to approve a first phase of consolidation among the county’s 65 fire departments. That phase would combine seven rural fire districts that cover 1.4 million acres and serve 50,000 people in rural and sparsely populated eastern San Diego County, where many wildfires originate.

The commission will forward the first-phase plan to the county Board of Supervisors, which is expected to consider it in January.

But the board’s approval, as well as other steps needed for the plan to go forward, are far from certain.

Critics say that a consolidated fire service will do little to increase residents’ protection from the annual rash of wildfires. And supporters of consolidation concede that any boost to wildfire protection will be incremental, given the scale and ferocity of the region’s fires.

A county supervisor, Dianne Jacob, a strong proponent of consolidation, said it would mean more resources, better training and a more focused effort to clear dry, dead vegetation from rural parts of the county where wildfires typically flare up.

“You’re reducing bureaucracy, you’re streamlining government and you’re creating better enforcement and better coordination of resources,” Ms. Jacob said.

Supporters also emphasize that consolidation would provide better fire protection and firefighting services to residents on a daily basis.

But supporters of consolidation face opposition from another county supervisor, Bill Horn.

In a display of disunity unusual for the tight-knit, Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors, Mr. Horn has criticized the consolidation of fire departments as costly and ineffectual, and has challenged Ms. Jacob’s support of the plan.

Mr. Horn, who like Ms. Jacob is also a member of the Local Agency Formation Commission, and who cast the dissenting vote at Monday’s meeting, said he would rather see the estimated .5 million annual cost of a new merged fire department go toward hiring more firefighters and buying helicopters and other firefighting resources. Previous efforts to consolidate a few fire districts have only created larger bureaucracies that cost taxpayers far more than expected, Mr. Horn said.

“I’d rather see my troops attack this thing, instead of sitting around and having a staff meeting,” he said.