SAN MARTIN, Calif. (KGO) — Modifications are coming for who will reply to emergencies and fires in South Santa Clara County.
On Thursday, residents, fireplace personnel and county officers packed a city corridor in San Martin.
The main focus was on a Board of Supervisors vote switching fireplace response from Cal Hearth to the Santa Clara County Hearth Division.
James Williams is the county government with Santa Clara County.
“At present, the South County District is structurally, fiscally imbalanced which means that its ongoing income will not be sufficient to maintain these stations open,” Williams mentioned.
The South County District has three fireplace stations. It covers areas in San Martin, components of unincorporated Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
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“That is the best way to make sure stability and guarantee continued fireplace safety for our residents,” Williams mentioned.
The union representing South County’s Cal Hearth staff mentioned the vote to finish the contract with them means greater than 30 firefighters could also be displaced.
And residents who stay in unincorporated South County have their very own worries.
John Flaherty lives in unincorporated Gilroy.
“My concern is that whereas that is taking place which I feel is basically a good suggestion, I feel LA (fireplace) has occurred since quite a lot of this stuff had been began. I do not see any dialogue about how has the city rural interface affected what we will do by way of satisfactory fireplace protection,” Flaherty mentioned.
County government James Williams and Santa Clara County Hearth Chief Suwanna Kerdkaew had been readily available to reply questions.
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Chief Kerdkaew mentioned this transition is a privilege to maintain companies ‘in-house.’ So far as making up the personnel wanted, Kerdkaew mentioned solely SCCFD and the San Jose Hearth Division have native accredited coaching academies. He additionally mentioned the relationships between surrounding fireplace businesses will solely proceed.
However not everybody felt they left with solutions.
“No, I feel the assembly was extra labor versus administration points and we were- the residents had been type of the spectators,” Flaherty mentioned.
The San Martin Neighborhood Affiliation helped reasonable the assembly.
Board President Stephen McHenry mentioned this transition would not solely affect residents there.
“The service that they ship down right here will not be solely to South County residents for instance, in case you had been a San Benito resident commuting to San Jose and you’ve got an accident on 101, the fireplace division right here responds to your EMS name,” McHenry mentioned.
The change should be accepted by the Native Company Formation Fee in April. The county did not share a timeline for when this variation will kick in.
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