County to Staff CSU Campus Fire Station

The first official contract between Cal State Channel Islands and Ventura County was finalized Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a contract that will provide on-campus fire protection through next summer.

Although the first students won’t arrive for about a year, the Ventura County Fire Protection District will receive $493,920 in exchange for staffing an existing fire station at the campus 10 hours a day between Nov. 1 and June 30, 1999.

“It’s a liability and a security issue,” said George Dutra, the university’s director of facilities and operations. “We’re trying to protect our resources out here and we’re trying to protect the people who work here.”

The contract eats up about 10% of the university’s first budget, which is about $5.2 million. A plan to have 24-hour fire protection will be negotiated in the spring, Dutra said.

The county and the CSU system have worked together before, establishing a special authority to oversee the financial aspects of the campus, but the fire protection deal marks the first contract for county services on campus, which was officially granted to the university Oct. 1.

The 634-acre campus on South Lewis Road will become an off-campus center for about 2,000 Cal State Northridge students in the fall of 1999. Provided enrollment increases, it will become the county’s first four-year public university over the next decade.

Currently, about 100 people work on campus, the former home of Camarillo State Hospital. Fewer than half are university personnel and the remainder are with the California Conservation Corps, which has offices on campus. A security staff and a handful of corps members stay on campus overnight.

By year’s end, up to 350 people will be on campus, Dutra said. The increase will be from two businesses that have leased office space, and the relocation of the county’s fire maintenance yard to the campus.

“I think they are making a reasonable effort to provide fire protection out there for what they are doing” on campus now, Ventura County Deputy Fire Chief Dave Festerling said Tuesday.

“If they are going to put students out there, they are going to have medical and fire emergencies” and will need more than just part-time protection, he added.

When the state mental hospital was in operation at the site, the state Department of Developmental Services staffed an on-site fire station much like a county station--with 24-hour coverage provided by three firefighters.

When the hospital was closed in early 1997 to save costs, 24-hour coverage remained intact but shifts were staffed by only two firefighters. When the university began moving in this summer, it contracted with the state for half-day services by two firefighters.

The decrease in staff and hours meant the campus station could no longer provide full fire and medical services, Festerling said. It is forced to rely on back-up assistance from the county’s nearest--but busiest--station, which is about seven minutes away in Camarillo.

County guidelines recommend a response time of no more than five minutes, Festerling said.

Festerling and Dutra said there have been no major fires or medical emergencies on campus this year.

Dutra said university officials debated several options for fire protection, including contracting for 24-hour coverage or having no coverage at all. The result was considered “middle ground,” he said.

“It’s not what we wanted but it is basically what we can manage,” he added.

Around-the-clock coverage on campus would have topped $1 million a year, Dutra said.