‘Brown Out’ for CFPD Station #2

The definition of a ‘brown out’ for a CFPD station is the coverage of a station by volunteer staff only. It is not manned 24/7/365 by paid staff.

At the last Board of Directors meeting on December 6 2010 at 6:30 during public comment Chief Cantrell was asked by Mike Shevlin about the apparent ‘brown out’ of station 2. The Chief assured Mr. Shevlin that the station is covered by volunteers. Mr. Shevlin clarified his question asking if volunteers actually stayed at the station. Chief Cantrell verified that volunteers did not stay at the station but were able to respond to calls coming from their personal homes and utilizing the equipment at the station to respond to a call. This answer prompted the question from Mr. Shevlin asking if there was a clear response time requirement for CFPD and what that time window was, mentioning that he thought it was seven minutes. The Chief replied that he was not aware of a required response time for CFPD yet clarified this response in an interview on December 17, 2010 stating, “The District has not established a minimum response time level of service for the community but endeavors to keep response times as short as possible.”

Currently the CFPD is facing a multitude of personnel problems including administrative leave, personnel without on proper licensing and firefighters possessing outdated certification, leaving the department shorthanded while those personnel become compliant with the guidelines for employment. Until those issues pertaining to licensing and certification are resolved those personnel are on modified duty schedule.

The Chief stressed that CFPD is a “combination fire department” where all paid staff and volunteer fire fighters carry pagers and are equipped and trained to respond to all incidents.