Operations

The Diamond Springs/El Dorado Fire Protection District covers 95 square miles with a population of 32,000 night time residents. Within the district boundaries there exists a diverse combination of businesses, senior citizen housing, mobile home parks, convalescent hospitals, rural residential and high density residential areas, all situated within an urban wildland interface setting. The District also is transected by two major state highways - Hwy 50 which runs primarily east to west and Hwy 49 north to south. There are also several major surface streets that carry a large amount of county traffic. The ISO rating for the District is a class 5 for areas with hydrants and class 9 for areas without.

The District operates on annual budget of $3,024,127 for fire district operations and $1,313,563 for ambulance operations. This provides for one (1) Engine company staffed with 3 career personnel - 24 hours per day, two career staffed (2) advanced life support ambulance, one of which is manned 24 hours per day and the other 12 hours per day. The remainder of our workforce is Volunteer Firefighters augmented by off duty career personnel called back for major alarms and incidents.

Emergency operations is provided from 5 stations placed strategically within the district and with the assistance of automatic and mutual aid agreements with other local and state agencies and with first in response from the following surrounding agencies: El Dorado County Fire Protection District (which also protects the City of Placerville), Rescue Fire Protection District, Pioneer and Amador Fire Protection District Battalion 20 (formerly Plymouth Fire Department). Additionally we have operating agreements with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Amador-El Dorado Unit) and the U.S. Forest Service (El Dorado National Forest).

The District operates the following equipment with 21 total career staff and 26 volunteer safety personnel and 2 non-safety positions:

            6    Engines
            1    Water Tender
            1    Truck
            1    Rescue (at the OES Medium US&R Type equipment capability)
            2   Medic Units
            4   Utility Vehicles

District personnel responded to 2,500 emergency calls within the past year as follows:

             65%   Medical Aid
               7%   Fires & Fire Related, All Types
               7%   Hazardous Conditions
                3% False Alarms
              22% Other (Good Intent, Cancelled in route and Citizen Assistance calls)

Target Hazards & Primary Fire Problem:

Wildland / Urban Interface; Threat to residential structures (seasonal)
Transportation Corridors / Traffic Accidents
Light Industrial and Mercantile businesses
Hazardous Materials (such as propane), Distribution facilities
EMS of all kinds; several Mobile Home Parks & Convalescent Homes

(updated 06/15/05)