Governor’s Proposed Realignment of Fire and Emergency Response Activities additional information

In an attempt to cut the deficit Governor Brown is proposing a realignment of CalFire SRA perimeters. SRA, State Responsibility Area, currently incorporates 1/3 of the states acreage. “Under statute, the state is responsible for wildland fire protection in state responsibility areas. The state has no statutory obligation to provide structural fire protection or emergency medical response.”

The State Responsibility Area (SRA) within Calaveras County is 623, 621 acres. That is equal to 94.20% of the county. The town of San Andreas and the City of Angels Camp fall within the category of Local Responsibility Areas (LRA).

New information from CAL FIRE Fire Captain Bruce Lodge, states that of the 119,953.45 acres that lie within the Copperopolis Fire Protection District, 112,725.36 are designated SRA, equaling 93.97% of CFPD acreage designated SRA. The remaining acreage for CFPD is Federal Responsibility Area (FRA) belonging to Bureau of Land Management (3,522.425 acres) and the Bureau of Reclamation (3,705.672 acres).

“By contractual agreement with the Federal agencies 100% of lands within the Copperopolis FPD are under the direct protection of CALFIRE, for the purpose of wildland fire protection.”

Currently Copper Fire runs a crew of two firefighters and one paramedic/firefighter per shift. The volunteer staff consists of 18 wildland qualified volunteers with response uncertain, “We never know who is available at any given time” points out Chief Cantrell due to the fact that many of the volunteers do not work within the District and response times vary greatly.

According to Battalion Chief Mario Hernandez, the CAL FIRE station in Copper “is typically staffed May 15 through November 1.” Although that time frame can be adjusted for current fire conditions.

If a realignment of fire and emergency area responsibilities is put in to place that affects the Copperopolis Fire Protection District, the District could possibly be left without a manned CAL FIRE station on Main Street for the 2011 ‘fire season’. If this occurs, the nearest responding stations would be either “Altaville to the East, Green Springs to the South, or Valley Springs to the North.”

Currently CAL FIRE Headquarters in Sacramento is working with the Governor’s Office regarding the LAO’s (Legislative Analysit’s Office) report  on the Governor’s Proposed Realignment of Fire and Emergency Response Activities that was issued on February 2, 2011.

Click here to read a previous article on SRA on the Copper Gazette