Camp Parks Fire & Emergency Services

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The Camp Parks Fire Department protects a small army reserve base located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is staffed by career civilian employees. The base and the fire department in its various forms date back to WW2 when the Navy opened a hospital and Construction Battalion (SeaBees) training base. After WW2 most of the base (the hospital remained under the Navy) was transfered to the Air Force which used it as a recruit training base through the Korean war, it was during this period that the current department was formed using civilian firefighters. In the Late 50's the Air Force closed down the base and the Naval hospital was closed as well. Much of the land was leased to the County and used for a jail and work camp, eventually this transfer became permanent and a county jail is still operated there. After the Air Force left the US Army decided it could use the land and the remaining acrage was transferred falling under the Presidio of San Francisco. The base survived the massive base closures in the Bay Area during the 1990's and is now under Ft McCoy (Wisconson). An interesting bit of trivia, even after falling under 3 out of 4 branches of the military, the base still has a unit of SeaBees serving on it.

The original fire station built in 1946 remained in service until 2004, when a new station was built. Due to the small size of the base the department only staff's one engine, but because of the wide range of responses the firefighters cross staff several pieces of equipment and are trained in many areas including rescue, ems, crash rescue, wildland and structural firefighting. The department is active in local mutual aid and has several members on the local USAR team and the county incident management team. The large area of open space available on base has provided the area needed for an annual live fire wildland drill for the surrounding fire agencies since 1994.

Service is provided 24 hours / 7 days a week, the firefighters work a 72 hour work week. All firefighting personel are EMT's, have completed California's Rescue Systems 1 course and must meet NWCG's requirements for wildland firefighting appropriate to their position.



Founded under the US Air Force in 1951

Area Protected 2700 acres (approximately)

1 fire station

Daily minimum staffing 4 (does not include the Chief)

Total department personnel 14 (includes the Chief and an admin assistant)


Apparatus

2005 Ford Excursion Command vehicle (replaced a 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe)

1988 E-One / FTI Type 1 engine (500 gallons, 1000 gpm), this engine went through an extensive rebuild from E-One in 1999.

1988 E-One / FTI Type 1 engine / medium rescue (650 gallons, 1000 gpm), this engine went through a major rebuild by Burton Bros in 2004. In addition to fire equipment it meets all the requirements of the California Office of Emergency Services to qualify as a medium rescue truck.

2- 2005 Ford F-750 Type 4 engines (400 gallons, 250 gpm), these replaced a 1986 KME Type 3 engine / watertender (1200 gallons, 250 gpm) and a 1999 GMC 3500 Type 4 (200 gallons, 50 gpm) in 2005.

2001 International / E-One Type 2 Watertender (2000 gallons, 500 gpm)

1990 Amertec 2500L MACI crash truck (660 gallons, 1000 gpm pump and roll capable), this engine is also used as a reserve Type 1 or Type 3 engine


The department has a website showing the stations and most of this equipment

http://www.usarc.army.mil/parksrfta/wcg/sites/directorates/Fire/campparksfd.htm