City of Gonzales
FIRE DEPARTMENT
ACTIVITY REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor Rios and City Council
DATE: October 16, 2023
FROM: Jason Muscio, Fire Chief
THROUGH: Carmen Gil, City Manager
SUBJECT: Fire Department Activity Report
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
September was a busy month for the Fire Department with a total of 63 calls for service, and a year-todate total of 565 calls. We responded to 42 EMS related calls including medical emergencies and vehicle accidents, 2 service calls to assist the elderly or residents with mobility issues, 2 false fire alarms, 6 calls which we were dispatched and cancelled, or no emergency was present, and 5 fires. The fires consisted of 2 vegetation fires in the rural fire district, 2 trash fires within the city, and a mutual aid fire in a mobile home on Alisal Road. We declined two requests by CAL FIRE for mutual aid due to staffing challenges.
The most serious incident within the city was a vehicle pedestrian accident at Fifth street and Highway 101 that resulted in the victim being transported by air to a pediatric trauma center.
DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS
There are currently no vacancies in our full-time staff, all positions have been filled. We did have staffing challenges resulting from 3 of our personnel contracting COVID-19. We currently have two active volunteer firefighters who continue to work night shifts as their schedules allow. Engine 8112 remains in service but is in need a repairs to the ladder rack, however we cannot take Engine 8112 out of service to perform repairs because Engine 8111 is currently out of service due to problems with the air brakes and the siren control. Parts to repair both engines have been ordered and we will take each engine out of service individually as soon as we have the parts in hand. Our service contractor L.N. Curtis Company performed the annual inspection and testing of our SCBA and rescue tools, no major issues were found.
All personnel participated in vehicle extrication training by practicing the use of our extrication tools on junk vehicles provided by Pete’s Towing.
AGENDA
ITEM
9 PREVENTION
There were 13 business inspections conducted during the month and few issues were found, none of them serious. Six residential rental units were inspected and there were violations found that will result in additional inspections of the properties.