Operations
The Fire District operates on annual budget of $3,168,509.29. The Fire District is staffed with a minimum of 4 career firefighters and 1 Chief Officer- 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Full staffing during the weekdays consists of 4 Chief Officers and 5 firefighters. This pattern is limited by the use of sick days, vacation leave, work place injuries, and training leave. The remainder of our workforce of Volunteer Firefighters augments off duty career personnel called back for major alarms and incidents.
Emergency operations are provided from 3 fire stations within the Fire District and with the assistance of automatic and mutual aid agreements with other local and state agencies. Our specialized equipment (Ladder Truck, Rescue, or Water Tender) is either cross-staffed by the on-duty firefighters or is operated by the volunteers and off-duty firefighters.
Automatic Aid
Arcata Fire maintains Automatic Aid agreements with Eureka Fire, Samoa Peninsula Fire, FieldBrook Fire, and Blue Lake Fire. The agreements allow each fire department to send their closest engine to the emergency to assist the responsible Fire Department. It also spreads the use of resources so one fire department is not totally committed to an incident and allows all agencies to cover the remainder of their districts.
Mutual Aid
Arcata Fire participates in the County and Statewide mutual aid system through CAL FIRE and the Office of Emergency Services. We routinely provide assistance to local, State and Federal forest agencies during the often-catastrophic California wildland fire season. We assist our neighbors with firefighting, rescue or station coverage. Our ladder truck has fought fires in Old Town Eureka while our Rescue Truck has extricated trapped occupants in vehicle accidents throughout the North Coast on highways 101 and 299.
Daily Duties
The on-duty firefighters conduct a variety of daily tasks while their number one priority is emergency response. They work a 24 hour shift starting at 8:00am by checking their personal equipment, their fire engine, and all of their tools. They do some light maintenance and cleaning around the station. They complete daily staffing reports for dispatch, answer department communications, and check for scheduled events.
They are encouraged to perform daily physical exercise to maintain a high level of conditioning required to operate at peak their performance as a Firefighter. Heart Attack, while on duty is the leading cause of death for firefighters due to the strenuous levels that firefighters face.
The crew also conducts training each shift to stay current on their firefighting and rescue abilities. The Firefighters built their own training props for forcible entry, ventilation, and a rescue maze designed to simulate rescue of an entrapped firefighter. The firefighter is then taught to perform a self-rescue and escape the maze. The maze resembles a collapsed ceiling of building. The firefighters inspect buildings looking for specific hazards, potential firefighter traps, places where people work or sleep, and what the best access is for the building. The firefighters visit schools annually and provide sequential, life safety public fire education to grades K, 2, and 5. Numerous classes, groups, organizations, and daycare facilities visit the fire stations throughout the year.
The firefighters also assist the Fire Marshal with fire inspections on multi-unit apartment complexes and school sites.
A firefighter’s day is never the same. Arcata Firefighters respond to an average of 5 calls for service per day mixed in with their normal duties. A call may last for only 15 minutes while others can last for hours depending on the size of the fire. Between alarms, assignments, training, maintenance, and chores the firefighters eat and sleep at the station until their shift is over at 8:00am the next morning.
