Placentia prepares to launch own fire department, there’s a lot to do in a year

Placentia has a little more than a year to create its own fire department and make other provisions for emergency service in the city, after opting to break from the Orange County Fire Authority.

But while city officials may have gotten over the biggest hurdle in voting early Wednesday, June 5, to strike out on their own, a number of questions – and potential bumps in the road – remain between now and July 2020, when the city’s contract with the fire authority will wind down.

Will staffing the department be a challenge? How will it handle mutual aid with neighboring cities? And will residents be satisfied with the services of Lynch Ambulance, a private company under contract, when they’re used to one all-inclusive fire/emergency medical service provider?

Placentia City Administrator Damien Arrula will be facing those issues and more as the city prepares for the transition. The fact that his will be the first city ever to leave the fire authority, which serves 23 cities and unincorporated parts of the county, doesn’t alarm him.

“We are going to provide a high-quality, professional department based upon what the city needs,” he said Wednesday, after an hours-long City Council meeting spent debating the pros and cons of the decision.

“The OCFA approach, while professional, is a one-size-fits-all type approach.”

The fire authority, which has served Placentia under contract for 23 years, expressed disappointment with the city’s decision, saying in a written statement that it was based on “misleading and inaccurate information that will put the public at risk.” Placentia last had its own department in 1975.

Arrula says his proposal – the Placentia Fire and Life Safety Department, working with Lynch Ambulance – should provide first-rate service, shorten response times and add to staff, while increasing local control and saving money. City Council members said they were happy with OCFA’s service, but years of increasing bills from the fire authority created an unsustainable situation that threatened to eventually consume as much as 75 percent of new revenue from a recently passed 1 cent sales tax increase.

The new department is expected to cost the city $6.1 million, compared with $7.1 million to stay with OCFA – and Arrula forecast that potential savings could grow to more than $28 million over the next 10 years.

“This has nothing to do with service, the quality of service or the personnel” at OCFA, Councilman Craig Green said. “This is purely a fiscal matter.”

Going solo

While some residents said the cost of sticking with the fire authority is a concern and they trust the council’s decision, others at the meeting expressed skepticism that the city’s plan – staffing two existing fire stations with a crew that will include career firefighter/paramedics and reserve fire personnel, and sending Lynch Ambulance to handle medical calls – would work as promised.

Longtime firefighter Dan Johnson said at the meeting Placentia’s proposed fire department wouldn’t be prepared for a major incident such as a 2002 train crash in the city that injured about 260 people and killed two.

“When we’re talking about this stuff, that’s what we need to think about,” he said. “If going smaller is the way to go, why are multiple agencies trying to go to larger departments?”

As one example, Garden Grove opted to scrap its fire department and is set to join OCFA this summer. But others have gone down the path Placentia is walking.

“The reason we did it was economics,” Calimesa Mayor Bill Davis said in a phone interview. His northwestern Riverside County city ended its contract with Cal Fire and launched its own department in January 2018, and Davis said he’s happy with how it turned out.

The city already owned fire equipment and a station, and it continues to contract with American Medical Response for paramedic and patient transportation services. Hiring firefighters was no trouble, Davis said.

But even to serve a fraction of Placentia’s population of more than 52,000 residents, for Calimesa, “It took two years of work trying to get to that position,” he said. “It isn’t easy.”

Challenges ahead

Placentia will only have a year until it’s out of the fire authority, so Arrula is already looking at next steps. The city already has police dispatch services and owns its fire stations, but will need to buy fire engines, hire an interim fire chief and other staff, and work out agreements with neighboring departments and various other agencies to ensure backup aid and specialized equipment will be available.

Arrula said the city is still figuring out how it will handle retirement planning, but its fire department will offer competitive pay based on the market in Orange County. He’s confident of finding qualified applicants, but others predict Placentia will face challenges.

With fire and EMS departments across the state facing a shortage of firefighter/paramedics, “They’re going to be at a competitive disadvantage,” said Shawn Stark, a retired fire captain who is deputy political director for California Professional Firefighters. The union’s Orange County chapter represents OCFA firefighters.

As a new agency that won’t offer the variety of experience a larger agency would, Stark said, hires may see Placentia as a stepping stone to other departments, creating a revolving door situation.

Several cities have agreed to pursue mutual aid agreements with the new Placentia department, including Anaheim Fire and Rescue. Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster said details would have to be worked out, but the city did send Placentia a letter pledging a willingness to negotiate.

City leaders stressed that they don’t take decisions about the community’s safety lightly.

“If my husband has a heart attack,” Mayor Rhonda Shader said before the vote. “I’m going to rely on whatever decision I make tonight too.”