Fire Line Forms at the Rear in Oxnard

They’ve spent the past few days lounging outside Fire Station No. 1, strumming guitars, grilling hamburgers and tossing softballs.

Most of all, they’ve been waiting--an activity well-known both to firefighters and the 150 firefighter hopefuls gathered on K Street.

All they wanted was to turn in their applications for six firefighter openings. But they had to camp out on the sidewalk for as long as four days just to get the opportunity.

“It’s a career,” said Ron Lenon, 25, a part-time Orange County firefighter seeking to land a full-time job here. He was among the many who pitched camp over the weekend.

“This is going to be my life,” added Lenon, as he sat in the back of his pickup and caught some sun. “If you want the job bad enough, you do what you have to do.”

The jobs stem from a few retirements and the addition of three entry-level positions for next year.

In any city, firefighter openings typically attract hundreds of applications. In Oxnard, the starting salary--which ranges from $35,000 to $45,000--is one draw. Combine that with a job many people crave even as children, and you get a crush of applications.

“Everyone wants it,” Oxnard Battalion Chief Clarence Slayton said. “But there’s not enough positions.”

That’s why Oxnard officials, fearing an avalanche of interest, limited the number of applications to 150. Applications will be accepted at 8:30 a.m. today.

Those who make the first cut will take a written exam that tests everything from basic math to verbal skills. Then they’ll take physical fitness tests, running up flights of stairs with heavy rubber hoses.

It could be as long as 18 months before they find out if they got the job.

Many in line said they’ve been through this before: camp out, take the tests . . . and wait.

Lenon said he’s applied recently for full-time jobs in Orange County, as well as in Denver and Modesto.

On K Street, some applicants showed up in campers, bringing generators to run TV sets. Others pitched tents, unfolded lawn chairs and cooked on gas grills. Using chalk, they marked their names and positions in line on their precious patch of sidewalk.

They played pickup basketball on courts across the street and lots of cards. On Sunday, some had relatives show up to celebrate Father’s Day.

“I’d call it a sober Mardi Gras,” said Jonathan Lusk, 28, of Camarillo, a county paramedic who said he lost a couple days’ pay waiting in line.

“It’s a better job than what I have,” said Lusk, who just finished a $900 firefighter training course at Oxnard College.

A few feet down the sidewalk, 65-year-old Lois Storey spent her third day on the sidewalk holding a place for her son, David, a firefighter in Mount Vernon, Wash. He was to arrive later in the afternoon.

Storey nursed a sunburn, read a Jackie Collins novel and bemoaned the climate of the sopping Northwest.

“David’s been there for quite some time, but just can’t stand the rain,” she said. “I’d do anything to get him back.”

Jenifer Kaufman had driven in from Pasadena. She splits time between firefighting jobs in Hermosa Beach and Beverly Hills.

“We’ve played basketball, softball and football,” she said. “It’s like a camp.”

Meanwhile, Al Travisen of Ventura said he’d make more money in Oxnard than at his job fighting brush fires in Los Angeles County. Besides, the job would be more interesting, he said.

“Here, it would be structure fires, mutual aid, medical aid--everything,” he said. “And it’s closer to home.

“At first, I wasn’t happy about having to camp out,” added Travisen, who killed time strumming his acoustic guitar. “But all the other guys want the job too.”