Chief explains Chico Fire Department’s readiness

CHICO » The Bidwell Park and Playground Commission hosted Chico Fire Chief Steve Standridge during its Monday meeting to ask him some questions about fire risks in local parks.

He answered many questions about the Chico Fire Department’s response time, resources and encampments.

There is a distinction between jurisdictions covered by the Fire Department specifically and those also covered by Cal FireButte County, which are referred to as mutual threat zones. There is an agreement in place between the two to share resources when treating those zones.

“We have a fairly good complement of resources available to get on fires rapidly,” Standridge said. “Anything within the heart of the city is more easily containable than those on the exterior of the city.”

In mutual threat zones, the city can access resources it would not ordinarily have access to such as bulldozers, planes and helicopters.

“We’re not looking at the variables that affect extreme wildfire behavior. They are not present in the heart of our city,” Standridge said.

Fire risk is dependent on many variables, some of which are typography, terrain, fuel loads and weather.

“Dry conditions are certainly concerning, but it’s really wind that really affects it. If I had one variable I would control, it would be winds themselves. That’s what pushes fire,” he said. “The variables in lower Bidwell are not the same as what you’d see in upper Bidwell.”

The national standard for response time is six minute and 30 seconds. The response time of the Chico Fire Department is seven minutes and 40 seconds to eight minutes and 30 seconds. Standridge said the gaps in response time have to do with being understaffed and lacking all necessary resources.

“But we do have relatively good response times within the heart of our city given the limitations of where our stations are and the resources available,” he said. “Even when we get our bread and butter, that being residential structure fires, it will take virtually every piece of apparatus we have available to make sure we mitigate that emergency. What that leaves behind is maybe one county unit, for example, available. When we get larger incidents, we end up having to do callback. We’re asking our folks who are off duty to staff our engines.”

To end his time with the commission, the chief spoke about how Bidwell Park has become an unofficial campground to the unhoused.

“That has certainly increased our fire responses to the park. I’m also very concerned about the safety of those camping in our parks. In California and up and down the nation, we’re seeing an increased number of homeless encampment fires that pose a serious risk to the inhabitants themselves, not to mention the homeowners, facilities, businesses adjacent to the greenways and parks,” Standridge said.