Firefighters Stress Danger in Budget Cuts : County: Crews say reduced staff will increase risks to the public. But warnings of station closures are inaccurate, officials say.

Capt. Russ Emory, a 24-year veteran of the Ventura County Fire Department, says his station in Oak View took a major hit last month when it lost a rugged rescue truck and its two-person crew.

The department moved the truck out of Oak View as part of a countywide plan to cope with a $3.6-million budget cut by transferring personnel and reducing services.

The moves, enacted Aug. 30, left Emory’s station with less equipment and its lowest staffing in two decades.

Injured motorists may have to wait longer to be rescued and Oak View firefighters will face greater safety risks because of the budget cuts, Emory contends.

“The stress level now is the highest I’ve even seen,” the fire captain said. “They’re asking three people at this station to do the same thing that five people used to do.”

Emory has joined other members of the county’s 365-person firefighting force in going public with their anger over the budget cuts. He and his co-workers are urging residents to press their elected officials for relief.

The Oak View fire captain has handed out flyers door-to-door, detailing the loss of emergency services. In the face of plummeting morale, other firefighters have gone further, posting signs that read: “This Fire Station May Be Closed, Contact Your County Supervisor.”

The campaign has infuriated county officials, who say the signs are inaccurate and alarm residents needlessly.

“I don’t want to play down the cuts we’ve had,” said Ventura County Fire Chief George E. Lund. “They have reduced our capabilities. There is the potential for longer responses to emergencies. My concern is that (the firefighters) are presenting non-factual information. I think the Fire Department is losing credibility with the public.”

Lund said none of his department’s 31 fire stations has been closed.

These stations protect about 400,000 people in an 865-square-mile area that includes unincorporated county land and all but four of its 10 cities. Ventura and Oxnard operate their own fire departments; Fillmore and Santa Paula rely mainly on volunteer crews.

Because of the budget cuts and transfers, some fire stations will be without staff more often, Lund acknowledged. A station may be unattended because its crew is responding to a call, receiving training elsewhere or covering at another station whose firefighters are out.

Sam Kassis of Simi Valley recently learned what can happen when no one is home at the nearest fire station.

On Sept. 1, two days after the budget cuts took effect, his 2-year-old daughter Shannel fell into an outdoor spa while Kassis was reviewing business papers with two friends. By the time Kassis’ older daughter had pulled Shannel out, the toddler had turned blue.

“She was not breathing,” Kassis recalled. “Terrifying was not the word for it.”

Kassis called 911 twice for help. Medical experts say brain damage can occur if breathing is not restored within four minutes.

Although he lives less than two miles from the Wood Ranch station, firefighters took at least seven minutes to respond. The father later learned that this crew came from a more distant Simi Valley station because the Wood Ranch firefighters were away, substituting at a station in Moorpark.

Before the firefighters arrived, Kassis’ friends were able to resuscitate Shannel. Although she was hospitalized for several days, the girl has recovered fully, her father said.

Still, Kassis is upset that it took firefighters so long to respond.

“Every minute or even every second seemed like an hour,” he said. “If my daughter had not made it back perfectly, I probably would have made a big stink about it. It was a matter of life and death.”

Lund said his department cannot guarantee that firefighters will be nearby whenever an emergency occurs. “Just because there’s a fire station in a community doesn’t mean there’s an engine crew there to respond,” he said.

Lund said he was aware that firefighters did not get to Shannel Kassis as quickly as her father would have liked. “It was occurring beforehand,” the fire chief said. “It will occur more often now.”

The reason, Lund said, is that state lawmakers balanced California’s current budget partly by withholding some of the money it had been providing to local entities such as the Ventura County Fire Protection District.

The district, governed by the county Board of Supervisors, operated with a $48.2-million budget during the 1991-92 fiscal year. About half of this money came from property taxes. The California Department of Forestry provided another 8% to protect wilderness areas in the county.

The remainder--about 42%--came from the state’s special district augmentation funds, set up to help agencies that lost money after Proposition 13, approved by voters in 1978, cut property tax revenues.

Bracing for this year’s budget cut, Lund set aside funds last year to help cover the gap. But those savings were wiped out last June when the district received about $1 million less in property tax money than it had anticipated.

By late summer, county officials told Lund he would have to operate during 1992-93 with a $44.6-million budget, about 8% less than last year. At the same time, he said, his operating costs, including salaries and benefits, supplies and workers’ compensation coverage, went up by about $1.5 million.

To stay within his budget, Lund moved personnel and equipment around. Two stations that formerly housed two fire companies now have only one each.

He took a $500,000 ladder truck and its four-member crew out of service in Camarillo, and moved the smaller rescue truck and its two-member crew from Oak View to take its place.

He split up a six-member hazardous materials team that had been stationed together in Moorpark. Half of this team now staffs the Wood Ranch station in Simi Valley, while the others remain in Moorpark.

Today, when a hazardous spill occurs anywhere in the county, both stations may be left unattended for hours, fire officials said.

The chief also slashed the overtime budget that has been used to pay substitutes for ill or vacationing firefighters. Displaced firefighters from other stations now fill most of these vacancies.

After a deputy chief retired last March, his position was eliminated. The department also now operates most of the time with one fewer battalion chief than in the past.

Altogether, the department now has eight fewer firefighters on duty each day than it did before Aug. 30.

The changes have angered many firefighters. Some are worried about lost overtime wages. Others believe the cuts are endangering the public and putting more firefighters at risk.

“We’re at the bare minimum with our full staffing, so if they take anyone away from us we’re in trouble,” said Brian Dilley, a fire engineer based in Thousand Oaks.

Last Wednesday, Dilley said, his engine company had to cover simultaneously for two missing crews: the Wood Ranch firefighters, who had gone to a hazardous spill in Port Heuneme, and a second Thousand Oaks company, which was training elsewhere. On Friday, his crew had to move into a station in Moorpark while its regular team was away.

Dilley does not believe that the firefighters went too far when they placed “Closed” signs outside some stations, even though the facilities were not permanently out of service.

“It’s like any other business,” he said. “You could put a sign on the door that says, ‘Yes, We’re Open,’ or ‘Sorry, We’re Closed,’ ” Dilley said. “It could be for any amount of hours.”

Shortly after the signs went up, however, Deputy Fire Chief Robert Holoway issued a stern memo, saying the signs were inaccurate and had been posted illegally on county property and utility poles. He warned that anyone placing such signs could be fired.

In Oak View, where the rescue truck was removed, firefighters got permission from private property owners to post signs that say: “Drive Carefully. Rescue Service Not Provided.” Holoway planned last week to seek removal of those signs as well.

County Supervisor Vicky Howard said she received several calls from residents who mistakenly believed the stations in their neighborhoods were shutting their doors permanently.

“We really feel the signs are wrong,” Howard said. “Let’s suppose we have elderly people who have a heart condition. They may get very anxious. They may worry that if they have a problem in the night, there may be no one to take care of them. That puts them in a stressful situation. And I think that’s wrong.”

The supervisor said fire stations have always been unattended for brief periods, including the times when fire crews are simply out buying groceries.

“There’s always a backup,” Howard said. “That’s the way the system works. Yes, we do have a few more shutdowns because of the budget cuts. We’re not happy about it.

“But if (the firefighters) are not happy about the cutbacks, they should call or write to their state legislators and say they want full funding for special districts, particularly fire districts.”

Some firefighters have suggested that the supervisors could transfer funds from other agencies or dip into their reserves to bring the agency back to last year’s levels.

But Howard said that if the fire agency gets more funding, then other county departments that also suffered budget cuts, including the district attorney’s office and social service agencies, would also seek relief.

“I don’t know where it will stop,” the supervisor said. “It’s a heartbreaking job to say no to these people.”

Nevertheless, the firefighters insist that they will continue to call attention to the reductions, hoping that increased pressure from the public sector will jar loose additional funding.

“You never want to think about (emergency fire service) until you dial 911,” said Ken Maffei, president of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ Assn. “It’s like life insurance. If you never use it, then OK. But if you have to use it, you want it to be there.”