Con Fire Increases Staffing On District's Busiest Firetrucks

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — More firefighters are now staffed on three of Contra Costa County Fire Protection District's busiest firetrucks. Truck T6 in Concord, truck T83 in Antioch and T884 in Pittsburg are now staffed with four firefighters instead of three, the agency announced in a news release last week.

"I am pleased to announce this important expansion of our emergency response capabilities," said Charles "Chuck" Stark, assistant fire chief of Con Fire's Emergency Operations Division. "We expect this move to a four-person staffing model to significantly increase our capabilities to support the communities we serve."

Because firefighters operate in teams of two on emergency incidents — for their safety as well as the public's — this staffing model doubles the number of emergency-response tasks the three firetruck crews can perform.

The move to four-person firetruck staffing became effective July 13 and is partially funded by a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response — SAFER — grant administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — FEMA — the purpose of the grant being to collect data on four- versus three-person staffing models.

"The increase to four firefighters ensures each firetruck has the ability to field two independent firefighter teams on any incident," said Con Fire Spokesman Steve Hill. "In addition to fighting structure fires, firetrucks routinely respond to other emergencies including a variety of rescues, vehicle accidents and emergency medical calls."

While quartered in Concord, Antioch and Pittsburg, the additional resources can be and very often are dispatched to incidents across the district, and, through automatic and mutual aid, elsewhere in the county, Hill said.

Con Fire's firetrucks are versatile firefighting tools with many purposes including serving as platforms for fighting fire from above. They are equipped with 100-foot ladders that extend hydraulically from the apparatus, a complement of ground ladders, and specialized equipment for forcible entry, ventilation, vehicle accident rescues, and search-and-rescue tasks.