The natural area near the Ellwood bluffs is full of dry grass. I don't know whose responsibility it is to maintain that, but it is a fire hazard, and our insurance rates as a community are climbing because the area poses a fire risk. I would like support in figuring out who is responsible for mitigating fire risk in these types of areas, given the exceptional drought conditions were are experiencing.
• Highly trained personnel, fast response times, working equipment, interaction with the community, educate residents of wildland fire dangers. (10+) • I expect the fire department to give the tools and resources to all their employees so they can do their job to the best of their ability. I have full faith that if the Firefighters (and engineers, and captains, and everyone else) have what they need, then they will do their best for the community. Fire management. Paramedic level medical services. Safe baby/child/infant dropoff zone (don't know what it's actually called). • I expect them to be bilingual or have someone on the team be bilingual. It is not enough for the dispatchers to be bilingual, first responders should be bilingual in Spanish/English, etc.
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• I have had limited contact but have found all responders professional, courteous, good listeners, and patient.
• I respect/appreciate our City and County Fire departments, I owe the lives of my daughter and son-in-law to them, and emergency services; SBSO/SBPD, ambulance, med techs, and Cottage emergency personnel, doctors and nurses, air transport, etc. They have truly exceeded my expectations and I will always be grateful to them all.
• I think that the fire department in SB is doing very well so I don't have further expectations.
• If I am in a location that is harder to access, smaller streets, away from arterial roadways, I expect a longer response time.
• If I am in an urban area, I expect a rapid response.
• If the accident I am reporting is closer to the nearest fire station I would expect the SBFD to arrive sooner.
• Just keep trying your best and as much as possible keep your own safety in mind... • Keep doing what they do. We have amazing fire and EMT crews here. I hope they know how appreciated they are.
• Live in Santa Barbara, CA.
• More diverse personnel.
• My expectations are the Fire Department is the first contact with City resources in emergent and non-emergent situations. Each member should understand they are a service to the community and representative of the community to visitors. • Quick and professional response to all emergencies and non-emergencies. I expect all firefighting personnel to be competent and fully trained to meet the needs of our community.
• Respond promptly to fires and extinguish them asap. Address medical emergencies at a scene until medical professionals can take over. Fire prevention by inspecting for fire hazards and ensuring fire prevention measures are in place in homes and buildings. Ensuring undergrowth is kept under control in fire-prone areas. • Respond quickly to fires and other emergencies. Save lives and property. • Respond to fire, medical emergencies, and emergency management during disasters. Enforce defensible space and abatement to prevent fires. Be skilled and professional.
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• That they urge City Council to require property owners to 1. remove dead plants and plant parts, and 2. trim anything over 7 feet tall up from the bottom to at least 5 feet.
• That they would be involved in various activities that would benefit the community such as litter pick-up, and brush thinning in public lands instead of watching TV in their station waiting for an emergency to occur.
• The same excellent service they have always provided. • They are doing a swell job.
• They don't seem very community-minded. We found it hard to get them involved in community events unless we went through the union. They're in Fire Station 2 on Cacique and respond to a lot of emergencies that are mainly homeless issues, with ODs and drunkenness.
• They have a calming effect on people experiencing Emergencies—We Love our Firefighters.
• To provide essential emergency response services to the City residents including residential fire suppression, life-saving medical care (Nationally Certified Emergency Medical Technician & Paramedic personnel at each station), first aid, and HazMat response and remediation within the City. The SBFD must also provide fire fuel clearing and removal for the residences now classified by the SBFD as high fire hazard areas. There is also the expectation of the SBFD to not propose or recommend or develop policy, regulations, plans, or other restrictive documentation for adoption by the City Council that adversely and irrevocably impacts the financial or living conditions of the City residents. • You need to have paramedics in the fire department. The current private ambulance that services the City does not seem adequate.
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Unmet Expectations
When asked which expectations were not met by the Department, the vast majority of the respondents replied that all expectations were met and expressed general praise to the SBFD for a job well done.
• A neighbor was told she was faking it once by an EMT. • Ability to address fire in high fire areas.
• Accreditation and national standards.
• All are being met, but we do not support Fire Department personnel (SBSO, SBPD, first responders and medical staff) the way our City and County should; more funding, more support for them individually, affordable housing, better hours, we need to do more. We used to use SB Co. inmates and Los Prietos youth to clear brush in the back country, so when they got out, they could be hired seasonally to earn and help prevent spread of wildfires when they occurred. • All are met. (10+)
• ALS
• Ambulance transport by a city or county entity.
• Community involvement—meaning we live in a high fire danger area, which requires the participation of all residents in preventing/preparing for fires. The fire department has done a good job of informing people via mail but people either don’t read the info or don’t have the interest/resources to address hazards on their property.
• Comradery.
• Diversity and cultural competence.
• Facilities, Staffing, Adding resources.
• Hard to tell until an emergency occurs. They saved my house in the Tea Fire after I lost my house in Sycamore Canyon Fire. Was the response of the Fire Department different? YES, I think so. They had become family with my neighborhood and knew where to stage to stop the fire burning the Riviera. I hope that they continue to be proactive and plan for the inevitable next wildfire.
• Have done nothing to prohibit vagrant camps and get the message out you simply cannot camp in public spaces. Period.
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• I am very pleased and grateful for the service provided to our community. Please keep doing what you are doing. You guys are the best! (10+) • I do not think there is enough prevention being done. The number of condos and mixed-use residential homes need to also have a fire prevention plan. There was no evacuation plan last year in the Miramonte Drive area when the hill was on fire. That was truly a residential mess. Who checks for fire suppression equipment in a condo complex as large as the highlands? I have lived there for almost 40 years and I have seen nothing from the fire department other than telling the association to clear brush in the canyon.
• I don’t want fresh out-of-school paramedics working for a private, for-profit company being the front line, highest medical authority in the City. Update the service model and get some Firefighter-paramedics on your fire engines. Preferably 2 on every engine.
• I don't know enough to say. I am a good example of why there should be more education of the public on Fire responsibilities. (5)
• I personally believe we have an outstanding Fire Department. My only concern is I wish more were done pro-actively to reduce the spread of possible wildfires.
Specifically, the road along Las Positas from Modoc to Cliff has a lot of overgrown and dead trees/vegetation. If a fire spread to that road, I don’t know how people would safely escape. I’ve complained about this before but no action is taken. • I think the Fire Dept. does a great job—just hope to see them in more community spaces outside of emergencies.
• I think the SBFD can do a better job of educating residents about home hardening approaches/solutions and how to maintain defensible space. It would also be helpful if SBFD could provide home hardening resources, such as the fireproof vent program being offered by the Montecito Fire Dept.
• I think they lack on the medical side of it. There should be a dedicated EMS system in place in this county. Get rid of AMR.
• I think they need to maintain integrity inside the firehouse AND outside in the community and with their families
• I think they're doing an excellent job. Sometimes I'm concerned they are overwhelmed when they have multiple calls at once.
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• I would like a person skilled in fire prevention additions to the home to educate residents. Example: what did that Mesa homeowner next to TV Keyt have installed along the bluff that was heat activated? Are there any roof sprinkler installations I could evaluate? Ratings for mulch near the structure? Help with EVACUATION routes. Right now, on the Riviera, it seems hopeless. Can homeowner invest in a fire shelter similar to those used in firestorm?
• I would like to see more enforcement of defensible space requirements and education of residents in the Coastal and Coastal Inland high Fire Hazard zones. • I would like to see more fire safety in the schools.
• In my situation, I was disappointed by the response time. Otherwise, the crew that arrived performed flawlessly.
• It seems hard to engage SBFD in community events where they could educate people. Lots of effort on homeless issues—wish they didn't have to respond so much to those and I bet they wish that too.
• It was very disappointing to learn that members of the fire department may not have been vaccinated when they came to, and inside of, our home. If true, that was disrespectful and dangerous on the part of the Firefighters. • Keeping canyons free of dead vegetation.
• Massively not met—transparency. I have no idea if the equipment is old or new.
What does the department need? Is the department overpaying or underpaying the Firefighters? What is the admin overhead? How does the department ensure that management doesn't get complacent and lazy?
• Mitigation for fire risks in the community, including at the urban/rural interface. • More bilingual personnel.
• More influence over federal and state failures to abate wildfires with preventative measures.
• More mental health response.
• Most of the Firefighters are white males and not represented of their community.
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• My experience is far more with large fires around Santa Barbara. I am no one to judge their competency but the joining together to become CalFire, and the physical capability to fight fires is far superior to how it was in 1990. I want enough funds available that we can have the best, largest, fastest firefighting equipment possible. We are living in a high desert fire range with a horrific history of devastating fires.
• My ONLY thought would be the topic of addresses clearly marked on residential homes and businesses. When we were remodeling, the FD made it VERY clear we were required to have our address clearly visible from the street. I've noticed that many homes and office buildings do not have clear address markings. • None. (79)
• Overlooking fire danger risks poised by property owners in the city limits. Would like more oversight by the department to inspect and enforce fire safety standards to property owners that create a fire danger risk to neighboring properties. • Please support requirements for fire-safe landscaping. Our property is nearly surrounded by crispy dead plants. We have spent thousands removing plants, trimming the rest trimmed up for fire safety, replacing wood mulch with gravel in back beds. It's all for naught if an ember wafts 15 feet from neighbors' wildfireignited junipers to our yard. • Public planning for major wildfire event.
• Really my expectations are being met. I think we could add EMT-type services to enhance life support/medical emergencies.
• Staffing, response time and availability, and water/hydrant locations due to the entire city in high fire risk area with our recent wildfires the past 5–7 years and increased demands, medically and fire, being required due to increased homeless impacts.
• Take better care of our Firefighters emotional/psychological health because they deal with trauma on a regular basis.
• The fire department should also be our EMS provider; having fire and AMR racing to a scene is ridiculous.
• The Santa Barbara City Fire Department is not representational of Santa Barbara due to the lack of diversity in its ranks.
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Met Expectations
Again, SBFD received accolades for the quality of services provided, community outreach, and its prompt, compassionate and professional care.
• Acting rapidly with fires.
• Addressing homeless encampments, brush clearing activities in high fire hazard areas, responding to wildfires.
• All of above. Our house was saved from Jesusita Fire, though it was an out-of-town truck that actually saved our house. The property burned but house saved. • Always being ready.
• Answered medical emergency calls quickly and very competent. • As far as I can see, everything I would expect.
• As far as I know everything else is great. I've had questions that were answered quickly and professionally. I've made 911 calls and the SBFD arrived quickly and handled the situation whether it was attending to a homeless man who was the victim of a fight or a neighbor suffering a medical emergency... • At my [hit by car while riding bike in the bike lane] accident, the guys were very polite and helpful.
• Being friendly and courteous, responding well and with speed. • Being ready to respond at a moment’s notice to emergencies. • Being there for us.
• Close in proximity.
• Communicating.
• Communication and response during major fires is very good. • Community education.
• Community involvement. Technical proficiency.
• Community outreach.
• Community outreach is good. When we purchased our property we appreciated the visit of the local fire personnel providing a fire hazard assessment of our property and possible actions.
• Community outreach was fantastic when kids were small. Fire department goes above and beyond for our community. Thank you Firefighters! Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 211
• Community presence and service to the community.
• Consistent effort, great attitudes, very helpful and patient with people. • Don't have any complaints. I wish the ambulance service was part of the fire department and not a contracted provider.
• Emergency responses including the several fires that we have had in our community in the past few years. Community involvement by the Firefighters seems to be important to them. They are involved with several charities and events in town.
Recently, I saw them involved with an event supporting the Special Olympics and all athletes.
• Every interaction I’ve had with the men and women of SBFD has been friendly and positive.
• Everything (10+)
• Excellent response time with a very qualified staff of employees. • Friendly, available, competent & professional (10+)
• Getting better equipment for getting water to fires. Responding to so much.
Providing training.
• Getting to fires quickly and putting them out.
• Good response times. Stations are located in appropriate locations. • I want to believe that each time they go out, personnel is ready, trained, and able to do their finest job.
• In my experience, SBFD is doing a great job of rapidly responding to fires and on focused outreach programs such as chipping services.
• In my experience, they are doing everything well with the resources they have. • Keeping us safe from fires.
• Medical emergency response, fire response, and community good will. • Meets all expectations, responds quickly, dedicated staff. • Prompt response, good notification time during fires, successful evacuations in recent years, community outreach.
• Prompt response, very compassionate, very knowledgeable. • Protecting our community from fire damage.
• Public education, wildland urban interface activities.
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• Staying non-political and non-threatening. Available to help community members not in an adversarial way but as a knowledgeable helpful expert. The residential inspection of homes in high fire areas is very helpful as are inspections of multi-family residences not to demand change but to help advise property owners and landlords.
• Super friendly, quick response, on top of red alert postings at Skofield Park, frequent surveillance of the neighborhood during the high risk days. • Suppression and prevention services.
• The Santa Barbara City Fire Department seems to manage a lot of aspects of public safety with limited resources.
• The SBFD seems to be exceptional in fire suppression and providing emergency medical attention. The SBFD's personnel is highly trained and professional. Station 4 and its equipment appears to be very well maintained and prepared for emergencies.
• Their current response time is good. When I’ve had to call (twice over perhaps 8 years), the Firefighters are superb. They care.
• They are always friendly and polite when I see them at the grocery store or even when in route to responding to an emergency.
Concerns About the Fire Department
Concerns about the SBFD centered around one major factor: having a diverse and representative department. Other concerns include whether the Department is appropriately funded and staffed, and concerns related to wildfires. • Money to purchase equipment and/or vehicles; Money/resources to have enough Firefighters available
• The sign always says moderate-high fire hazard, but I am not sure what to do with that info. Other than scare me, I don’t know how to “lower” the risk. • A general concern is that the department be quick and competent in response to wildfires.
• A little too reluctant to challenge SB City about removing trees that may impede their access to residential areas.
• Again, fire prevention and inspection within neighborhoods and properties in the city limits.
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• Aging station facilities and technology. Not enough education on self health of employees, effects of career physical and mental. Not enough mental health awareness and training/support groups (unless the person seeks it out). More community involvement/SFD family events.
• Approachability of personnel. (This is more for law enforcement that the fire department, but we had a negative experience when we had to call 9-1-1 for our daughter's injury).
• Are the Firefighters being paid enough? That’s my only concern. • As above—if the department wants meaningful community support, it should be transparent about what it has and what it needs. For example, if the department needs a new engine that's $1M, it would be helpful to know how much money is being spent on other things and why the $1M has not been set aside over time. • As the city has grown in population and number of new construction, concern about adequate coverage to handle major fires including wildfires in light of climate change.
• Community connections and visibility outside of emergencies. • Do not let budget cuts affect your work. If some items are needed, have a volunteer be in charge of outreach fund-raising—and keep it up, having list you can add to as needs are met.
• Do they always need to come to a medical emergency if their special training is not required? I am thinking of routine medical emergencies where an ambulance is all that is required. Car wrecks are different of course. Beyond that, it seems like overkill and unnecessary use of resources.
• Do they have all the equipment they need for a rapid response brush fire? • FD should have had more input in the downtown area. The business park-lets should have been approved by the FD regardless of the temporary status. • Fear that they are understaffed for whatever reason and will therefore not be able to respond in an emergency.
• I am concerned that they are underfunded.
• I feel like the Fire Dept. needs to do more community outreach and education—the outreach programs they have seem to be working well.
• I feel that the SBFD is not involved as much as it should be with city projects or changes like the closure of State Street.
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• I think the survey is segued to state we want fire to takeover EMT/ambulance services. I disagree. AMR is doing a fine job—have no connection with them, but it is good to keep fire doing what does best projecting the community from fires! • I think Firefighters do not need to respond to incidents where fires are not expected such as non-life-threatening car accidents. It is a waste of money when Firefighters show up to scenes where there is little to no risk of a fire starting. • I think the Firefighters should have free gym memberships, monthly massage or chiro appts and mental health support as this job can be physically and emotionally taxing.
• I think they are called upon to do a few too many tasks, especially during fire season this seems too much. I do appreciate they are trained for emergency medical situations, but wouldn't ambulance services be good at that as well. I imagine the fact that fire stations are in every neighborhood this might be one reason they are called upon for 911, it just seems like it would be a lot on top of all of their other duties.
• I think they may be pulled thin by non-emergency calls. I would really like to see a division of health and homeless emergencies and fire/structural/gas leaks/other urgent issues separated. I'm not sure why they aren't now. When I was growing up you wouldn’t really see the fire department showing up for medical emergencies.
Why aren’t our emergency services/ambulances showing up first? It seems like duplicate services are being called for one problem/issue. The other concern that I have is adequate housing for fire persons so they can live in the communities they serve. They shouldn't have to drive 30 minutes plus outside of the communities they serve. Affordable housing, bonus pay is critical to keep our emergency service people here in the city.
• I would like the Fire Dept. to explore the potential to act as one of 2 co-response people to respond to mental illness calls (such as Psychotic breaks) i.e. one fire staff and one mental wellness staff (counselor /therapist). Current trained Co-response teams have a law enforcement person and a mental wellness person. They need more teams to cover more hours each week and more geographic areas. Could Fire Dept. EMTs be interested and trained to do this?
• I would like to know that the first responders are vaccinated. • I’m concerned the fire department doesn’t have the personnel or resources to meet the needs and expectations of the community.
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• I’m concerned with the lack of maintenance and general up keep of city properties and equipment. I continue to watch city officials expanding and spending but not maintaining what my tax dollars have already paid for. Maintaining properties will always be cheaper than tearing down and building new.
• I'd like to know that the department is well staffed, with plenty of backup personnel.
I wish we had ocean water-scooping equipment and the most up-to-date technology available. Retention of best employees, recruitment of excellent Firefighters should be a priority.
• I'm concerned at the amount of resources that have been drawn to fires caused by illegal activity.
• Insufficient funding. The City needs to provide sufficient funding for all operations. For example, the Fire Prevention Bureau needs more funding and staffing to allow them to be more proactive in addressing brush clearing. And City ordinances need to be changed to make the mandatory brush clearing dependent on drought conditions and push it earlier in the spring, as needed, since fire season is now year-round. • Need for older station upgrade.
• Need paramedics on the engines not just EMTs.
• No diversity.
• None (10+)
• Overworked and shortage of people during emergencies. • Public outreach to the Spanish-speaking community is limited as a result of limited personnel. in emergencies, as we saw during the mudslide the sp sp community was the last to be informed even as recovery processes began. there is a need of more bilingual personnel to increase all community member involvement its difficult to build relationships if the community does not see representation within government entities.
• Social media presence seems to be lacking or can be enhanced in my opinion.
Spotty at times with news and events.
• Some of the stations seem to be old and in need of updating/remodel. At least not an eyesore in the community.
• The main concern I have is the lack of diversity of Fire Department employees. It’s almost 99% white and male. The City of Santa Barbara is not well represented in this regard.
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• There is a lack of fire protection infrastructure in many neighborhoods with hydrant spacing exceeding the fire code standards. Hydrant spacing of more that 800 feet in residential areas or in the now classified high fire zones is not adequate. The SBFD needs to mitigate this infrastructure matter it light of its CWPP and the City must upgrade the essential water mains and outdated dry and wet barrel hydrants at the City's cost. A more global issue is local housing for SBFD personnel is a must. Staff that is detached, not invested in this community and therefore, not affected by actions of the SBFD. Having a housing program would alleviate this issue. • They are getting criticism they don't deserve. Residents are responsible for reporting crimes, and doing what they can in their neighborhoods; fire inspections, and defensible spaces.
• They are overpaid for the work they do. This is not LA or NY, Santa Bárbara has limited height structures and a populace that does not threaten them when they respond to a fire. Also, why do they roll huge firefighting apparatus to a call for a medical emergency and then sit and wait for the Paramedics? • Too many calls for homeless problems like overdoses and mental health outbursts. • Why do they run two systems of fire prevention—one for property owners and one for vagrants who constantly put property owners in peril. One system of strict fire prevention standards for all.
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Positive Feedback
• I've had questions that were answered quickly and professionally. I've made 911 calls and the SBFD arrived quickly and handled the situation whether it was attending to a homeless man who was the victim of a fight or a neighbor suffering a medical emergency... Each time I have had contact with someone from the SBFD the person has always been pleasant and I've felt that my concern or question was addressed.
• Almost every Firefighter I meet seems very professional and well trained. • Always impressed. In my time as head of Security/Safety at planned parenthood, they were professional, courteous, informative and helpful to staff. Thank you! • Always professional and courteous and wanting to help. • Always, friendly, helpful, compassionate. I'm thankful for our local SBFD—city and county.
• Any time I have come in contact with fire department personnel it has been a good experience.
• Anyone who does that job deserves ALL our thanks. Bless them! • Brave, friendly people work for our fire department. Thank you for your service. • Chief appears responsive and updating the department for the future. • Everyone is SO nice and professional. They give good solid advice for each individual situation.
• Excellent in their Public Outreach!
• Excellent job. I wish you got paid more.
• Excellent team of people. Very professional, very nice, very good at what they do. • Excellent.
• Fast conscientious and well equipped.
• Fire department is friendly, visible, present, respected and respectful, brave. • Great appreciation for a very tough and dangerous job. Am thrilled that there is a fire house close to our house.
• I am glad that they are seeking community input.
• I am impressed and grateful for their work and dedication.
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• I am tremendously grateful for the work in fighting wildfires. I am from the East Coast originally, and am amazed at the organization and rapid response when there is a wildfire in the area. Thank you.
• I believe that the Firefighters are incredibly courageous and well-trained and probably should have housing set aside for them as the expense of living here for them is exorbitant.
• I have enormous respect for all of the Firefighters and support staff. I recognize and appreciate the dangerous situations they confront every day. • I have known leadership since my first EMT course and truly believe they have the KSAs to protect the community.
• I have no complaints and only positive interaction with SBFD. It seems to me that they do a good job!
• I have not used the fire department but from what I've read of their responses, they're great! Thank you!
• I like the approach of the newest chief.
• I still remember the moment the chief came to chat and connect with my golden retriever puppy. It completely rewrote my memory of the event made a huge difference to me to see his inherent kindness and humanity. • I think they do a great job.
• I think we have an excellent fire department.
• I'm so pleased to hear and see the vegetation removal that is going on in Honda Valley!!! Everyone who knows about that project is very informative. They make themselves available for questions, help, etc...
• In my experience, the personnel were professional and courteous. They went above and beyond with their customer service.
• In the past when we have called, even for things that turned out to be a non issue, the crews have shown up very rapidly, performed in an extremely professional manner and were 100% confident and assuring us that everything was being handled and/or all OK.
• Keep up the good work but start changing the make up of your ranks to represent a changing demographic that represents our community and gives opportunity to ALL people to be able to fill the ranks of Police and Fire. • Keep up the good work ladies and gentlemen of the SBFD.
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• My kids love when the Firefighters come to the school and talk with them. Public education starts young. I appreciate the department taking advantage to teach kids fire safety.
• Outstanding professionals, caring, quick response.
• Superb response and fighting fire during Jesusita and Thomas fires! And many of the smaller ones that didn’t get too far beyond the homeless camps. • Thank you.
• Thank you all so much for your hard work.
• Thank you for all you do and putting out fires
• Thank you for all you do.
• Thank you for all you do. We have an amazing fire and EMT service here. • Thank you for putting yourself at risk to keep the community safe. • Thank you for taking the time to do a community pulse survey. I hope this influences other agencies like SBPD, County Sheriffs, and others to take the time to check in with the communities they serve. So proud of our dept to take the time! • Thank you for your service
• Thank you to our Fire Department, our community is grateful and fortunate to have you all!
• Thank you!
• Thank you!!!!
• That Firefighters pay and training is stable!!!
• The best!!!!!
• The crews are always smiling and wave back. I appreciate that they are available, and hope I never need to call them.
• The members of the Fire Department, especially the administration, are great. It is good to see that the department strives to promote from within and tries to hire from within the community. That leaves politics out of public safety. Other local public safety departments should do the same.
• They are greatly APPRECIATED!
• They are heroes in the community.
• They are our heroes. We are ever indebted to them and their families.
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• They have a difficult role to play—they have crazy schedules, and need to react so quickly when called upon—they put themselves in danger all the time—they need to know that we appreciate them—and, they really do represent some of the best qualities of our Community—they represent security, safety, and empathy for people—many of whom may be experiencing the Worst Day of their life... I always get so excited to see them at the end of the Fiesta Parade! xoxo • They have given excellent service in evacuating us during fires. They provided excellent service when we had a car battery fire. They have given excellent service when we had an injury with one of our children. We are deeply grateful for their expertise and kindness.
• We are so grateful for your service to our community! Our awareness has been especially heightened since the Thomas fire and your work is SO critical. We live near the station on Storke and all staff there are so friendly if they're working outside when we walk by or when they drive by: they are so thoughtful to my young 3-yearold son who admires them. • We have been blessed to be served during fire outbreaks, accidents at home and local emergency responses and our fire department has done extremely well.
Interdepartmental cooperation and organization is exceptional! • We have great interaction with the fire department and their training of individuals to become CERT trained and trying to get the community involved in helping at times of emergencies and disasters.
• With the limited bilingual staff they do have, they do a great job. • Without exception, every fire person I have met who works for the fire department is friendly and kind and genuinely seems to care about the community. • Wonderful, just so reliable, compassionate.
• You saved my life!
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Additional Comments
• Can you get the police department or the planning department to conduct a similar survey? They both might benefit from this kind of survey. • Concerned that department keeps radio as well as cell phone communications.
Towers go down.
• Consolidate all local fire agencies under one administrative agency. The days for all these individual fire agencies is over, when there is so much reliance on CalFire today when things get serious. Cost savings that can be redirected to purchase of state of the art equipment like that new power shooter helicopter that was put into use a few days ago. Tell us more about what you want from us—because 90% of the time, "only we can prevent forest fires."
• Cross train Police and Fire employees. 6 months on as a Fire fighter, then 6 months on as a Policeman.
• Educate in regards to ACE (adverse childhood experiences) to cultivate empathy anywhere it may be lacking. Thank you!
• How to get more cellular or Wi-Fi remote infrared fire sensor networks for early detection and response to house and field fires.
• I am very thankful for our fire department personnel and the work they do.
Fortunately, I have not had any fire or other kind of problem requiring their assistance, thus I cannot make many comments of this survey. • I do not know how the SBFD tracks each call for service. That said, if it does not track if alcohol was involved in a call for service it should for reporting purposes. • I like the idea raised by Supervisor Hartmann of having Fire Dept. contribute to coresponse teams. That would require that some personnel receive additional training in mental health to assist behavioral health in dealing with these cases. We need more co-response teams than the Sheriff is able to staff. Not all calls require a law enforcement officer. It would be good to have better dispatch to determine which calls could be handled without police or sheriff.
• I like the regional closest to the incident response plan. I hope more female Firefighters are recruited. Maybe through female sports teams at the college level.
Proven team players and strong women. I also am hoping the BOS replaces AMR with SBCO Fire for transport. For economy and centralization and other reasons.
AMR has plenty of other contract areas. They do a good job but County Fire can do a better job! No need to contact me. Thanks.
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• I like to see less fire trucks roll up when there is a residential emergency other than a fire. That should be the AMR's job.
• I would like to see more use of goats and sheep used to assist in keeping fire prone areas clear of dead brush and trees.
• I’d like to get one of these surveys from the police department. • I'm glad that financial impediments to immediate use of firefighting helicopters were removed. I'd like to see more wildland firefighting technology and equipment in local control.
• It is difficult to accurately rank the fire department services listed in this survey without really knowing what some of these services actually are, what their scope is, and what other agencies maybe involved in providing them. • Just let the Fire Dept know they are appreciated!
• Most people realize that one of the objectives of this “study” is to justify the city fire department adding paramedics.
• Overall I feel very safe living here!
• Thank you for sending out this survey for us to complete at home. • Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback from this 47-year City resident and homeowner.
• Thanks for helping our department get better. They need more funding, more people and always better training.
• There are ZERO vacancies in any Fire Department in California. When there is, you can bank on a thousand applications. We need to take that supply and demand into account.
• Wondering why the close proximity of the Stanwood fire station with the county fire station located in Mission Canyon above Rocky Nook Park. • Yolanda McGlinchey has been a wise hire for the department and informs the community of what we should be aware of. Thank you for that.
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Appendix B: Strategic Partners—Stakeholder Interviews
Stakeholder Interviews Introduction
Triton interviewed a wide variety of the Santa Barbara City Fire Department's internal and external stakeholders. The purpose of these interviews was to gain a better understanding of issues, concerns, and options regarding the emergency service delivery system, opportunities for shared services, and expectations from community members.
It is important to note that the information solicited and provided during this process was in the form of "people inputs" (stakeholders individually responding to our questions), some of which are perceptions reported by stakeholders. All information was accepted at face value without an in-depth investigation of its origination or reliability. The project team reviewed the information for consistency and frequency of comment to identify specific patterns and/or trends. Multiple sources confirmed the observations, and the information provided was significant enough to be included in this report. Based on the information reviewed, the team identified a series of observations, and recommendations and felt they were significant enough to be included in this report.
Stakeholders were identified within the following groups: Elected Officials, Department Heads, Business Community Leaders, Citizens, Chief Officers, Labor Leaders, Volunteer/Reserve Firefighters, Rank & File, and Administrative Staff.
Elected Officials, Business Community, & Citizen Groups What strengths contribute to the success of the Fire Department? What do they do well? • The Fire Department's Community Outreach and on-going Training Programs. • The current process for documenting and reporting work-related injuries and on-thejob exposures is commendable. • Sustainability: The Fire Department is aware of their strengths and weaknesses, such as their response to an oil spill at the airport.
• Their desire and willingness to support the community. • Water rescue.
• The Department is approachable, friendly, open-minded, and welcoming. • The Department is Incredibly responsive, professional and is part of a regional collaboration approach with other emergency responders. • The Department has well-trained Firefighters.
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• The Department's communication with the public is excellent and they broadcast important information to the public which includes the bilingual community. • Their Training Program is impressive and includes the necessary tools and technology.
• The Department is proactive and responsive to the community. • The Department has adopted a Community Wildfire Prevention Program. • The Department is proactive and responsive to multiple communities within their response area; one community has adopted an Emergency Plan. • The Department is helpful and knowledgeable of the fire codes and works well with other city departments.
• The Department is appreciated by their communities due to the Firefighters to giving that "personal touch."
• The Harbor Patrol and the Fire Department have great relations. • The Department is open minded, approachable, and extremely friendly. • The Department leadership does an excellent job of communicating the Department's needs.
• The Department has a personal engagement with the community as demonstrated during the Thomas Fire.
• Members of the Fire Department are approachable and open-minded. • The Department's leadership staff communicates their needs and works well with the line personnel.
• Working with outside agencies such as the Santa Barbara Open Space Parks. • They do good preventative work, especially in wildfire threats.
What are some areas in which you think the department could make improvements? • Succession planning.
• Staff development.
• There exists a lack of innovation.
• Repetitive documentation.
• Transparency needs to be improved.
• Implementation of a wildland/vegetation removal plan.
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• Develop a Public Outreach Program that includes trained volunteers and Spanish speaking community members.
• Emergency Medical Dispatch.
• AMR (American Medical Response) "on-call response" needs improvement; sustainability is a challenge.
• New fire apparatus is needed.
• Implement a tracking system for equipment i.e., medical supplies, jackets, helmets, etc.
• Staffing level for Fire Inspectors has been reduced from six Inspectors to three Inspectors.
• Prior to Covid 19 pandemic, the Fire Department had implemented an outreach program for the Hispanic community, utilizing the support of one of the Fire Departments staff members. Unfortunately, the outreach program continues to be in limbo.
• More readily available information in lay terms, including day-to-day operations and large fires. Having these in Spanish is also essential. • They need one solid voice, a PIO, or a public face.
• The need to use drones for preventative work.
• Using the ladder trucks for medical calls is risky since they are so large.
What opportunities, in your view, are available to improve the service and capabilities of the Fire Department?
• A pre-academy or volunteer program, something to help civilian Firefighters. • Santa Barbara is the only fire department in the area without paramedics. The department must be able to provide ALS.
• Provide training that includes Workers Compensation as it pertains to Public Safety Officers.
• The homeless situation and the impact it has on emergency services. • Continue on-going training; is the Fire department providing training that is based on non-City-wide practices?
• Emergency response apparatus is aging.
• Improve retention of our Firefighters; it appears that they are not looking from within before going to the outside.
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• Funding is available for environmental challenges such as climate change, wildland fires and fuel reduction areas; the Fire Department should research this possible opportunity.
• Geographic Information System needs additional support. • Technology and Administration support is one of our weak areas. • Communication & Coordination.
• City is open to being creative with the facilities.
• The Firefighters are effective and responsive.
• The Fire Fighters have an appropriate level of education, values "mutual aid" and participate in "boundary drops" and "closest resource utilization". • Managers need training, people skills and the skills to empower staff. • The Fire Department should be diverse when recruiting. • Go to local schools focusing on it is possible to be a Firefighter. • Host a Firefighter Candidate Testing Center.
• Discussions have occurred regarding going vertical as well as not wanting to shorten their response capability, i.e., replacement of Fire engine/s, ladder trucks, etc. • A centralized Dispatch frees up County and City overlap and controls service and response-time for ambulance service.
• A regional dispatch center will have a positive impact! Please share your thoughts with us regarding staffing utilizing 12-hour shifts and peak hour units.
• Utilization of staff and resources is paramount; dynamic deployment offers mobility of where the incident is.
• Utilizing the right staff to meet the current needs.
• Peak augmentation.
What do you see as the top critical issues faced by the Fire Department today? • Community age, community density and how to serve it. • Repairing the existing dispatch issue, becoming more of a regional statewide agency and focus on staffing issues.
• Year-round fire season, Firefighter fatigue, the possibility of climate change and, Mutual Aid Agreement/s.
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• Sundowners, severe drought conditions and discontinue building in the high-fire areas.
• Alignment of type of call with the proper apparatus responding, staffing and firefighting compounds in the Airport.
• Frequency of fires, Firefighters being gone from home and funding issues. • Externalities are high i.e., the cost of living locally, Volatility of revenue and Vulnerability.
• Opportunities out there is the potential of generating additional fees. • Staffing at all levels, recruitment-retention, and Implementation of the Community Wildland Protection Plan.
• Vegetation management, Fire Safe Council, and neighborhoods helping themselves.
• Money, development, and staffing resources.
• Flexible staffing models, density maps i.e., "GIS" and protection of historic buildings. • Vertical, less off-street parking.
• Putting more people in a defined urban atmosphere, taking a holistic approach and overcrowding.
• Density maps/GIS, historic buildings having no fire protection and homeless population issues including lighting fires.
• Communication issues due to an Increase in Spanish speaking population, urban interface and restrictive housing issues.
• Accumulative Cost of service, a possible boundary drop and reviewing existing Risk and Workload.
• Diversity is paramount, minimum staffing issues and management training. • Compensation, benefits and managerial training.
• The need for additional fire apparatus, a Cost Recovery Fund and development of an Apparatus Replacement Schedule.
• Budget, Capital expenses/facilities, Keeping up with wages, Retirements and Capital costs of facilities.
• Be proactive in these things: #1—Pay /benefits (not in line with neighboring agencies) – quality of life and mental health. #2—Capital improvements, i.e., ladder truck needs repairs or replacement. #3— More Spanish speaking members.
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If you could change one thing in the Fire Department, what would it be? • Lack of gender diversity.
• Where the Fire Department currently at organizationally. • In the event of a major fire disaster, members of the Fire Department may not available; they need to be more localized.
• Upgrade the equipment.
• Culture, which can be difficult to change.
• Provide training for the necessary tools and skillsets needed to promote.
Labor Leaders, Rank and File, Chief Officers and Administrative Staff What strengths contribute to the success of the Fire Department? • The relationship with the community.
• Our customer service. In addition, the staffing has improved for deployments. • Our hiring process has heavy involvement from the line. This has helped us find great people.
• Our skills and training are excellent.
• We are good at medical and other high-frequency calls. • We are dynamic and motivated.
• We handle calls well, and we have excellent customer service. • We have a positive culture that is passed on to new people. • We are an aggressive department with rapid and aggressive fire attacks. • Our mutual aid departments and our ability to provide mutual aid. • Fire Department responds very quickly and efficiently to requests from the public. • Flexible and find alternative ways to respond and serve. • Accessible, approachable, has strong leadership and are inclusive. • The Firefighters are experienced at planning for the future. • The Fire Department has a positive relationship with the City. • The Fire Department is familiar with Wildland interface and have Wildland Inspectors. • Community Wildfire Prevention Plan
• The Firefighters and Chief Officers are level-headed and logical.
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• The Firefighters are assigned to working groups and are members of various committees.
• The Fire Department offers a Light Duty to Firefighters who have an injury but cannot carry out the essential functions of their job.
• Wildland inspectors.
• Everyone in the Department is cross-trained.
• We are all mindful of each other's responsibilities.
• The Department is dedicated to their mission.
What are some areas in which you believe the Department could make improvements. • The availability of outside training and classes.
• Our social media use.
• We are not progressive in many respects, such as the fleet, staffing, and response. • Delegate projects and budgets to crews or captains.
• The turnover at the chief level is frustrating. We don't have clear objectives. • Succession training. The training from a Firefighter to an engineer is good, but there is no training for positions above engineer.
• We do not have promotional celebrations as an organization. • The promotional list is alphabetical without scores, which doesn't allow the chief to hire the best-qualified person.
• Consistency in training since the training officer is overwhelmed. • Automatic aid with a functioning AVL
• The technology is terrible. We don't even have preplans that are shared. • A dedicated IT person is needed.
• Relationships between the Firefighters and Prevention needs to be improved. • Advanced Life Support services should be part of the Department's services. • We need additional staffing.
• Staff the Logistics section.
• The Department could improve their Cost Recovery Fee Schedule and process. • Onboarding of new hires needs improvement.
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What opportunities, in your view, are available to improve the service and capabilities of the Fire Department?
• Four-person staffing.
• Jurisdictional boundary drop for responses.
• There is room to improve our health and wellness program, primarily preventative wellness.
• The combined dispatch center may be a huge help.
• Improve the fleet.
• Community outreach for hiring and recruiting.
• We need a PIO program.
• We should use social media better, keeping it updated and relevant. • Have the battalion chiefs share responsibility with the crews on programs and budgets.
• Change the leadership culture to servant leadership.
• Qualified relief personnel.
• The Department needs to be more diverse and be a better representative of the Fire Department to the public.
• The Department's Public Information Officer "PIO" has no assigned position. It would be a benefit to the Department and the communities we serve to hire a PIO; the City does have a PIO that is dedicated to the City and does not include Fire. • Consider online Plan checks using a City-wide tracking system. • Hire additional Prevention Personnel including an administrative position to assist the Prevention Bureau.
What do you see as the top critical issues faced by the Fire Department today? • Staffing Administration and Safety Officers.
• Diversity.
• Inclusion.
• A Succession and Management Plan which includes several levels is needed.
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• Firefighter wellness, behavior issues, medical exams, counseling, Physical Fitness Equipment, the current Budget, Staffing levels across-the-board, Preparing for the future and Succession Plan are important items that the Fire Department needs to review and discuss.
• Cost recovery.
• Capacity, Orientation, and on-boarding.
• The Budget.
• Minimum staffing is a mandate.
• Impact of financially maintaining the Overtime Budget.
If you could change one thing in the fire department, what would it be? • Increase staffing.
• A Logistic Manager.
• Succession planning.
• Budget and Vision. The Department needs an Admin Battalion Chief or Deputy Chief.
• Increase staffing for the administrative branch.
• Improve the existing investigator "on-call" situation.
Business, Community Groups, Community Members & Volunteers Describe your expectations of the Fire Department.
• A timely response.
• Active engagement, participation, and emergency planning training. • Information on wildland fuels, see when there are red flag warnings or other serious concerns, and be active partners in prevention/response. • Official updates regarding incident strategies and activities. • Special needs evacuees need good shelters that accommodate them, but they should be with the general population, not segregated.
• Message using indigenous languages, and hopefully, they will develop partnerships for that.
• Community education and disaster preparation with better fire department visibility. • Response, involvement, good relationships, fireproofing the community with fireready topics, and the ability to fight a fire.
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• They should be the premier agency for training, equipment, and availability. • They must operate efficiently and utilize the closest station to the incident. • Communication of expectations and capabilities, and utilize public outreach, including social media, to relay this information.
• The employees need to be professionals and customer service-oriented. • Respond equitably, with diverse people, and within a reasonable time. • Show up on time with all the necessary equipment, training, and expertise. • Respond in a timely manner.
• Prompt response with the right actions.
• Efficient and effective with the money they have and on-time responses. • I expect transparency from my fire department.
• Because of the community, they should have bilingual, especially Spanish outreach. • They need to show up in 4-5 minutes.
• They should be community-oriented with cooperative partnering in prevention, with schools, for instance.
Which of these expectations are not being met to your satisfaction? • Occasionally communications are lacking.
• There is difficulty coordinating the alert and warning systems. • They lack their own designated PIO.
• Notifying the public about the complete incident picture. • Needs better messaging, possibly to include visual communications, which is inclusive in style and content
• Better information about what the fire department does. • Life safety building permits take an excessive time to process and approve. • The community doesn't really understand the fire department. There isn't good outreach.
• Call processing time is historically awful.
• They need to progress faster and look for more ways to innovate. • Make police and fire dispatch separate.
• They don't do ALS work, which seems to be their only shortfall.
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• The department is not demographically reflective of the community. • The public doesn't know who is responsible for responding to different emergencies. • Evacuation coordination is lacking.
• Weed and other fire abatement enforcement programs are weak. • Notification about incidents, and there is no single point of contact for information. • Social media is not being used well.
• Having the on-duty battalion chief as the PIO is not working very well. • PIO is necessary to the press, and this was identified as a department weakness after the Loma fire. In addition, the post-incident feedback was information to the media and communities was not done well. However, that fire is admittedly potentially a one-off situation.
• Proactive education by district area.
• It isn't the fire department, but AMR's crews are disrespectful and not very customer friendly.
• All my experiences with the fire department have been good. However, this isn't true with the paramedics who respond to my facility's calls. With them, I feel like we get the brush off.
• They need to clearly define what else they do. For instance, what are the fire department's responsibilities, and where are their jurisdictions. • Engage more with the at-risk communities, such as transients and those with mental health issues.
• I would like to see actual data on where they are and what they need. More specific, data-driven information would be beneficial to me. Unfortunately, I don't know very much about them.
What do you think the Fire Department is doing particularly well? • They respond, are reliable, and I never have to think twice if they are coming or not. • Robust fire suppression capabilities, helpful and good community partners. • They are great ambassadors.
• CERT, Listos, and public education.
• They are accessible, especially during new construction, and collaborative with consistent teams.
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• Good engagement, good personnel, and community understanding. • They care.
• During a personal incident, I called 911. Even with communication barriers, the dispatchers could communicate, and the response was within 5 minutes. The crew was good with the victim.
• They are proactive in identifying high-risk fire prevention in the wildland-urban interface, and good follow-up on concerns.
• Having a single contact for concerns and when there was an incident. They showed up and did good work.
• Their technical skills, how they treat the public, and they receive good community support.
• They provide extra services like a chaplain and referrals. • They collaborate well with other first responders.
• They report on what is happening to other responding partners. • There is always room to improve, but they are doing a good job overall. • There is a good Firewise and fire-safe council partnership. • They are responsive, responsible, and helpful to our community. • I appreciate they have one point of contact for Spanish speakers. • Open to communication with media.
• Prompt responses in about 3-5 minutes.
• They are pleasant, respectful, and responsive (responders and staff), which is much different from AMR.
• Quick return of phone calls.
• They are consistent, they care, and they are professionals. • This community outreach is nice. It's nice that they take the time to listen. • Transparency, responsibility, and community-based services. • The Fire Department has better relationships with health-challenged individuals.
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Are there services that you think the department should be providing that they are not providing now?
• Working with hospitality and how to protect the tourism economy. • Perhaps help reduce fire load by using goats and sheep in the interface areas. • Need to communicate evacuation plans clearly before an emergency. • There is no communication or education about what to do in an earthquake. • They need more outreach for general community education and better advertisement for prevention issues.
• They should leverage neighborhood groups to encourage resiliency and fire prevention.
• Facilitate community disaster preparedness groups, perhaps expanding the CERT ideas.
• They need to communicate better, maybe town hall meetings, and reach out to the community leaders.
• More safety education, especially in the Hispanic communities. Economics drives many people to live together in smaller spaces, like multiple families in single-family units.
• Paramedics on EMS calls.
• Maybe they could do new parent car seat installations and training. • The department should reflect the community demographics and should be transparent about that.
• More information and statistics, especially those not associated with a specific incident. A statistical executive summary, for example. • Some data and information about the department that the public can consume at their own pace.
• Exploring other partnerships and routinely engaging in community forums like this one.
Are there services the department is providing that you think should be discontinued or done differently?
• Regional Dispatch Center for Fire and EMS.
• Perhaps doing inspections by non-sworn people could help them be more efficient.
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When you dial 911 to report an emergency, how long should it take for help to arrive? • 4 –5 minutes.
• 5–6 Minutes.
• 4–10 Minutes.
• 5–10 Minutes.
• 5–10 minutes.
• Ideally, less than 5 minutes.
• No more than 2 minutes.
• The closest unit should respond and get rid of political boundaries. • Under 10 minutes.
• Under 5 minutes would be preferable.
• Less than 5
• For Behavioral health: 6 minutes
• For Professional Health Care within 8 blocks: 15 to 20 minutes .
Does that expectation change depending on where in the community you are located? • Surges may take longer, say 10–15 minutes.
• Longer response times for further distances seem reasonable. • I think extended responses for poor accessibility areas are reasonable. • No, everyone's response should take the same amount of time. • Not really. It should be evenly distributed.
• Everywhere in Santa Barbara should be about the same. • The public expects the very best, fastest response.
• The response should be equitable regardless of location. • No, there should be equal responses irrespective of location. • Logically it might take longer and might be scalable. • People in some areas cannot expect the same.
• It should remain the same regardless of location.
• No, the community should respond equitably across all areas.
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• Absolutely it does. Traffic, location of the fire station, and how many fire trucks are being used on other calls are all factors.
Do you believe the first arriving response units should be staffed and equipped to take appropriate actions given the emergency?
• Medical requires more stuff than currently available at SBFD. • To the best of their ability, providing initial medical support. • Initial response requires access, and additional specialized units may be necessary. • Yes.
• Yes, except possibly for search and rescue. Having a paramedic respond is essential, but maybe not the first unit.
• Absolutely. The units should be able to do everything they might come in contact with.
• The public trusts the Firefighters will bring the right equipment, but they still need to find progressive ways to respond. A better dispatch system may help that. • Yes, they should have the best equipment available based on the situation. • They should strive for paramedicine.
• They should respond with bi-lingual or the ability to communicate with different languages.
• Feels like they are showing up with everything they need, but yes, they should have everything they need.
• Yes, they should have everything and the right equipment responding from the start, and units should be comprehensive in their equipment.
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Appendix C: Risk Classifications
The following are the risk classifications determined by incident type.
Fire
Low Risk
These incidents are considered low in risk and are minor in scope and intensity. It requires a single fire apparatus and crew to manage fires involving passenger vehicles, fences, trash or dumpster, downed power lines, residential or commercial alarm investigations, or an odor investigation.
Moderate Risk
These incidents are the first alarm response needed to manage a moderate fire risk incident. These incidents include smoke in a building, small outside building fires, commercial vehicle fire, a single-family residence, lightning strike to a building, automatic fire alarm at a high-risk occupancy, or a hazardous materials pipeline fire.
High Risk
These incidents are a second alarm response needed to manage a high-fire-risk incident.
These incidents include smoke in a high-life hazard property (school, skilled nursing, etc.), single-family residence with injured or trapped victims, multi-family residential building, or a moderate-sized commercial/industrial occupancy.
Maximum Risk
A third alarm response is needed to manage a maximum-fire-risk incident. These incidents include a hospital, assisted living facility, fire in an apartment building, high-rise building fire, a large commercial or industrial occupancy, hazardous materials railcar or storage occupancy. Incident assignments will include additional command staff, recalling off-duty personnel, mutual aid assistance for other critical tasking needs.
EMS Risks
Low Risk
A single EMS unit can manage a low-risk EMS incident involving an assessment of a single patient with a critical injury or illness, no-life threatening medical call, lift assist, or standby.
Moderate Risk
A two-unit response is required to control or mitigate a moderate risk EMS incident. It involves assessing and treating one or two patients with critical injuries or illnesses or a motor vehicle crash with 1–2 patients.
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High Risk
A multiple-unit response is required to control or mitigate a high-risk EMS incident. It involves three to eight patients with injuries ranging from minor to critical. Patient care will involve triage, BLS, ALS treatment, and a coordinated transport of patients.
Maximum Risk
A multiple unit response is required to control or mitigate a maximum risk EMS incident. It involves more than nine patients with injuries ranging from minor to critical. Patient care will involve triage, BLS, ALS treatment, and a coordinated transport of patients. If this is an active shooter incident, the response may require a casualty collection area unit to treat patients, not in the hot zone.
Technical Rescue
Low Risk
A single fire unit can manage a low-risk technical rescue incident involving rescues that are minor in nature, such as a child locked in a vehicle, elevator entrapment, or minor mechanical entrapment.
Moderate Risk
A two-unit response is required to control or mitigate a moderate technical rescue risk incident. Support is not usually required from a technical rescue team. This type of incident involves a motor vehicle crash that requires patient extrication, removal of a patient entangled in machinery or other equipment, or a person trapped by downed power lines.
High Risk
A multiple-unit response is required to control or mitigate a high-risk technical rescue incident. This type of incident may involve full-scale technical rescue operations ranging from structural collapse to swift water rescues. It may involve multiple motor vehicles that require extrication, commercial passenger carriers, or a vehicle impacting a building.
Support is usually required from a technical rescue team. This incident may require multiple alarms.
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Maximum Risk
A multiple-unit response is required to control or mitigate a maximum risk technical rescue incident. Support is required from a specialized technical rescue team and may have multiple operations locations. This type of incident will involve full-scale technical rescue operations such as victims endangered or trapped by structural collapse, swift water, or earth cave-ins. This incident will require multiple alarms and may expand beyond the identified critical tasking. Recall of off-duty personnel or assistance from auto or mutual aid may occur during a disaster or when additional alarms and command staff are needed .
Hazardous Materials
Low Risk
A single fire unit can manage a low-risk hazardous materials incident involving carbon monoxide alarms and other unknown hazmat investigations without symptomatic victims, less than 20 gallons of fuel, natural gas meter incident, downed power lines, equipment or electrical problems, or attempted burning. Automatic alarms that may originate from a hazardous material.
Moderate Risk
A two-unit response is required to control or mitigate a moderate risk hazardous materials incident. Direct support is not usually required from a hazardous materials team. This type of incident involves a carbon monoxide alarm with symptomatic patients, a fuel spill 20–55 gallons, or a gas or petroleum products pipeline break not threatening any exposures.
High Risk
A multiple-unit response with a hazmat team is required to control or mitigate a high-risk hazardous materials incident. Support is needed for a Level 2 hazmat incident that involves establishing operational zones (hot/warm/cold) and assigning multiple support divisions and groups. This response includes a release with three to eight victims, gas leaks in a structure, hazmat alarm releases with victims, flammable gas or liquid pipeline breaks with exposures, fuel spills greater than 55 gallons, fuel spills in underground drainage or sewer systems, transportation or industrial chemical releases, or radiological incidents. Additional assistance may be required to expand operations past the identified critical tasks.
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Maximum Risk
A multiple-unit response is required to control or mitigate a maximum risk hazardous materials incident. Support is required from an on-duty hazmat team and their specialized equipment. This type of incident involves establishing operational zones (hot/warm/cold) and assigning multiple support divisions and groups. Examples include nine or more contaminated or exposed victims, a large storage tank failure, hazmat railcar failure, or a weapon of mass destruction incident. This incident will require multiple alarms and may expand beyond the identified critical tasking. Recall of off-duty personnel or assistance from auto or mutual aid may occur during a disaster or when additional alarms and command staff are needed.
Wildland Urban Interface
Low Risk
A single fire unit can manage a low-risk wildland firefighting incident involving a fire minor in scope, structures not threatened, and Red Flag conditions do not exist. These include lowrisk wildland or grass fires include an outside smoke investigation, illegal or controlled burns, or small vegetation fires.
Moderate Risk
Multiple units are needed to manage a moderate risk wildland firefighting incident involving a significant fire in brush, brush pile at a chipping site, grass, or cultivated vegetation. Red Flag conditions do not exist, and structures may or may not be threatened.
High Risk
Multiple units or alarms are needed to manage a high-risk wildland firefighting incident. The level is associated with Red Flag warnings with structures that may or may not be threatened. This fire involves a significant wildfire in brush, grasses, cultivated vegetation, and woodland areas. Additional alarm assignment, command staff, recall of off-duty personnel, and mutual aid assistance may require the operations to extend beyond the identified critical tasks.
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Aircraft Rescue & Firefighting
Low Risk
A single ARFF unit has the capability to manage a low-risk ARFF incident. These incidents, which require an Alert 1 response, involve standbys such as a medevac flight, refueling operations for aircraft with non-ambulatory passengers, or small aircraft on the ground with minor operational issues. The standby may be in the station or in the airport operational area.
Moderate Risk
A moderate ARFF risk is considered an enhanced Alert 1 that includes all the airport's frontline apparatus and staffing. These are staged standbys for in-flight with a mechanical or instrument deficiency but does not normally affect the aircraft landing safely. It may include a feathered propeller on a multi-engine aircraft, overheated engine, low oil pressure, or minor ice buildup.
High Risk
This is an Alert 2 (less than nine people) on an Alert 2A (nine or more people) and is considered a full airport response. This type of emergency involves in-flight aircraft with an operational deflect affecting normal flight operations that could cause an aircraft accident to occur. Examples include the loss of an engine, interior smoke or fire in the aircraft, malfunctioning landing gear, or low hydraulic pressure. Other support agencies will be assigned to the incident, including law enforcement, EMS, and airport operations staff.
Maximum Risk
This is an Alert 3 (less than nine people) on an Alert 3A (nine or more people) and is a full airport response supported by off-site fire suppression apparatus and staffing. This type of emergency involves in-flight aircraft that have been involved in an accident on or near the airport. Other support agencies will be assigned to the incident, including law enforcement, emergency management, EMS, and airport operations staff.
Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 243
Appendix D: Table of Figures
Figure 1: Population Estimates, 2011–2021................................................................................... 4 Figure 2: Population by Age Risk .................................................................................................. 5 Figure 3: Percentage of Households with a Disability ................................................................. 6 Figure 4: Language Barriers........................................................................................................... 7 Figure 5: Percentage of the Population in Poverty..................................................................... 8 Figure 6: Population with No Health Insurance ........................................................................... 9 Figure 7: Education Levels........................................................................................................... 10 Figure 8: Race & Ethnicity ........................................................................................................... 11 Figure 9: Owner & Renter-Occupied Housing........................................................................... 12 Figure 10: Age of Housing ........................................................................................................... 13 Figure 11: Housing Units per Building .......................................................................................... 14 Figure 12: Three-Axis Risk Classification Process......................................................................... 15 Figure 13: Probability or Likelihood of Occurrence................................................................... 16 Figure 14: Consequence to the Community............................................................................. 17 Figure 15: Impact on Operational Forces.................................................................................. 17 Figure 16: Fire Response Risk Assessment................................................................................... 18 Figure 17: Fire Three-Axis Risk Classifications.............................................................................. 18 Figure 18: EMS Response Risk Assessment.................................................................................. 19 Figure 19: EMS Three-Axis Risk Classifications............................................................................. 19 Figure 20: Technical Rescue Response Risk Assessment........................................................... 20 Figure 21: Technical Rescue Three-Axis Risk Classifications...................................................... 20 Figure 22: Hazardous Materials Response Risk Assessment ...................................................... 21 Figure 23: Hazardous Materials Three-Axis Risk Classifications.................................................. 21 Figure 24: Wildland Fires Response Risk Assessment.................................................................. 22 Figure 25: Wildland Fires 3-Axis Risk Classifications .................................................................... 22 Figure 26: Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Response Risk Assessment ................................... 23 Figure 27: Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Three-Axis Risk Classifications............................... 23 Figure 28: City of Santa Barbara Proposed & Approved Housing Units .................................. 25 Figure 29: Zoning Classifications ................................................................................................. 25 Figure 30: Occupancy Types...................................................................................................... 26 Figure 31: Schools ........................................................................................................................ 27 Figure 32: Childcare Occupancies............................................................................................ 28 Figure 33: Assembly Occupancies............................................................................................. 29 Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 244
Figure 34: Hospitals ...................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 35: Congregate Care Facilities ....................................................................................... 31 Figure 36: Multi-family Occupancies.......................................................................................... 32 Figure 37: Buildings Three or More Stories in Height................................................................... 33 Figure 38: Buildings 50,000 Square Feet and Greater ............................................................... 34 Figure 39: Large Fire-Flow Occupancies.................................................................................... 35 Figure 40: Average Monthly Daily High Temperature (2010–2011).......................................... 36 Figure 41: Average Monthly Daily Low Temperature (2011–2021)........................................... 37 Figure 42: Average Wind Speeds at Santa Barbara Airport..................................................... 38 Figure 43: Wind Rose—Santa Barbara Airport (1972–2021)...................................................... 38 Figure 44: Wind Rose—Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens (2012–2021)..................................... 39 Figure 45: Average Monthly Precipitation (2011–2021) ............................................................ 40 Figure 46: Drought Conditions (September 2022)..................................................................... 40 Figure 47: Earthquake Risk........................................................................................................... 41 Figure 48: Wildfire Risk Zones ....................................................................................................... 45 Figure 49: Local Responsibility Area Fire Hazard Severity Zones .............................................. 46 Figure 50: Flood Zones................................................................................................................. 47 Figure 51: Tsunami Risk................................................................................................................. 48 Figure 52: Average Annual Daily Traffic Counts........................................................................ 50 Figure 53: Energy Systems ........................................................................................................... 51 Figure 54: Natural Gas Transmission & Distribution Pipelines..................................................... 52 Figure 55: Hydrant Locations ...................................................................................................... 53 Figure 56: Communication Systems ........................................................................................... 55 Figure 57: Property Loss per Capita, 2018–2020 ........................................................................ 57 Figure 58: Fire per 1,000 Population............................................................................................ 57 Figure 59: Intentionally Set Fires, 2018–2021............................................................................... 58 Figure 60: ISO Earned & Available Credits for the City of Santa Barbara............................... 59 Figure 61: California ISO Classifications...................................................................................... 59 Figure 62: The Community Risk Assessment Process.................................................................. 66 Figure 63: SBFD Organization Chart (2023)................................................................................ 72 Figure 64: SBFD Service Area....................................................................................................... 74 Figure 65: Mutual & Automatic Aid Resources Available to SBFD ........................................... 75 Figure 66: Mutual & Automatic Aid Fire Stations near Santa Barbara City ............................. 76 Figure 67: City of Santa Barbara General Fund Activity........................................................... 79 Figure 68: General Fund Revenue & Expense Projections........................................................ 81 Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 245
Figure 69: Santa Barbara City Fire Department Historical Costs by Division, FY 2018–FY 2022 ............................................................................................................................................... 82 Figure 70: Santa Barbara City Fire Department Costs by Category........................................ 83 Figure 71: Santa Barbara City Fire Department Projected Expenditures ................................ 84 Figure 72: Administrative Staff Full-Time Equivalent Count....................................................... 87 Figure 73: Operations Staff Full-Time Equivalent Count............................................................ 88 Figure 74: Comparison of Firefighters per 1,000 Population ..................................................... 89 Figure 75: Operational Staffing & Allocation............................................................................. 90 Figure 76: Criteria Utilized to Determine Fire Station Condition................................................ 96 Figure 77: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 1............................................................................... 97 Figure 78: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 2............................................................................... 98 Figure 79: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 3............................................................................... 99 Figure 80: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 4............................................................................. 100 Figure 81: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 5............................................................................. 101 Figure 82: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 6............................................................................. 102 Figure 83: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 7............................................................................. 103 Figure 84: Santa Barbara City Fire Station 8............................................................................. 104 Figure 85: Santa Barbara City Fire Training Center ................................................................. 105 Figure 86: Summary of SBFD’s Fire Stations............................................................................... 106 Figure 87: Criteria Used to Determine Apparatus & Vehicle Condition................................ 113 Figure 88: SBFD Frontline Apparatus Inventory (2022)............................................................. 114 Figure 89: Economic Theory of Vehicle Replacement ........................................................... 116 Figure 91: SBFD Response Workload History............................................................................. 118 Figure 91: Responses by Incident Type .................................................................................... 119 Figure 93: Monthly Response Workload (2018–2021).............................................................. 119 Figure 93: Daily Response Workload, 2018–2021 ..................................................................... 120 Figure 94: Hourly Workload, 2018–2021 .................................................................................... 120 Figure 95: Unit Workload............................................................................................................ 121 Figure 96: Average Unit Time on Scene................................................................................... 122 Figure 97: All Incident Demand Density................................................................................... 123 Figure 98: Structure Fires............................................................................................................ 124 Figure 99: Structure Fires by Hour of Day.................................................................................. 125 Figure 100: Frequent Response Addresses............................................................................... 125 Figure 101: Travel Time Extent ................................................................................................... 126 Figure 102: Effective Firefighting Force—Apparatus............................................................... 128 Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 246
Figure 103: Effective Response Force—Firefighters................................................................. 129 Figure 104: Unit Hour Utilization ................................................................................................. 130 Figure 105: Concurrent Incident Percentage ......................................................................... 131 Figure 106: Unit Concurrency.................................................................................................... 131 Figure 107: Summary of Performance Goals........................................................................... 133 Figure 108: Call Processing by Type of Incident...................................................................... 135 Figure 109: Call Processing by Hour of Day ............................................................................. 135 Figure 110: Turnout Time Performance by Call Type............................................................... 136 Figure 111: Turnout Time Performance by Hour of Day .......................................................... 137 Figure 112: Turnout Time by Unit at the 90th Percentile ........................................................... 137 Figure 113: Travel Time Performance by Call Type ................................................................. 138 Figure 114: Travel Time Performance by Hour of Day............................................................. 139 Figure 115: First Unit Arrival Performance ................................................................................. 140 Figure 116: First Unit Arrival Performance by Hour of Day....................................................... 140 Figure 117: Call Received to Arrival by Call Type ................................................................... 141 Figure 118: Call Received to Arrival by Hour of Day............................................................... 141 Figure 120: EMS Incident Demand ........................................................................................... 142 Figure 120: Private Provider Performance Objectives ............................................................ 143 Figure 122: Ambulance First En Route to First Arrive Times...................................................... 145 Figure 122: Switched Unit Effects.............................................................................................. 146 Figure 123: Mutual Aid Medical Providers................................................................................ 147 Figure 124: Response Determinants ......................................................................................... 148 Figure 125: SBFD Responses by Medical Determinant............................................................ 149 Figure 126: Transports by Response Type and Time as Recorded by AMR........................... 150 Figure 127: Transport Volume by Year & Code ....................................................................... 151 Figure 128: Utilization Rate ........................................................................................................ 152 Figure 129: Population Projections............................................................................................ 153 Figure 130: Workload Projections.............................................................................................. 153 Figure 131: Deming Cycle......................................................................................................... 155 Figure 132: Incident Segments.................................................................................................. 157 Figure 133: Performance Chart Example................................................................................. 159 Figure 135: Methodology Overview......................................................................................... 167 Figure 135: The Community Risk Assessment Process.............................................................. 169 Figure 136: Example of a LIDAR Depiction of Fuels................................................................. 188 Figure 137: Residency................................................................................................................ 192 Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 247
Figure 138: Service Prioritization................................................................................................ 193 Figure 139: First Responder Qualities ........................................................................................ 194 Figure 140: Planning Considerations ........................................................................................ 197 Figure 141: Satisfaction of Services........................................................................................... 198 Figure 142: Response Time Opinions ........................................................................................ 199 Figure 143: Response Time Expectations ................................................................................. 201 Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 248
Appendix E: References
1 How agriculture became Santa Barbara County’s largest industry, Santa Ynez Valley News, 2022.
2 National Fire Protection Association, 2007; Urban Fire Safety Project, Emmitsburg, MD. 3 U.S Census Bureau.
4 U.S. Fire Administration website.
5 World Economic Forum website, www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/poverty-mentalhealth-covid-intervention/. 6 Quality Improvement for the Fire and Emergency Services. 7 Santa Barbara General Plan.
8 Topical Fire Report Series, Multifamily Residential Building Fires (2013–2015), June 2017. 9 Iowa Environmental Menoset website.
10 Ibid.
11 Infrastructure Security, Department of Homeland Security. 12 SoCalGas Natural Gas Pipeline Map.
13 Personal communications, August 18, 2022.
14 Santa Barbara Airport Passenger Count Report, June 2022. 15 Fire Loss on the United States During 2020, NFPA, September 2021. 16 Fire Loss in the United States, NFPA, 2018, 2019, 2020. 17 Ibid.
18 Crime Data Explorer, Federal Bureau of Investigation. 19 https://www.isomitigation.com/ppc/technical/divergence-factor/ 20 Vision 20/20, Community Risk Assessment guide.
21 Vision 20/20, Outcome Measures Guide.
22 City of Santa Barbara Adopted Two Year Financial Plan for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023.
Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover Santa Barbara City Fire Department 249
23 Fahy, R., Evarts, B. & Stein, G. (2021). US Fire Department Profile – 2019 Supporting Tables.
NFPA Research.
24 library.qcode.us/lib/santa_barbara_ca/pub/municipal_code/item/title_3-chapter_3_16 25 Emergency Medical Services Authority, California Health & Human Services Agency. (March 2020). Ambulance Zones, Ground, Exclusive Operating Areas (EOA) Status as Compiled by EMSA. (Pg. 64).
26 Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, Emergency Medical Services Agency (January 1, 2005). Emergency and Non-Emergency Ambulance Service Agreement for Advanced Life Support and Pre-Hospital Care. (Pg. 11).
27 Ibid. (Pg. 10).
28 Ibid. (Pg. 12).
29 www.sbsheriff.org/command-and-divisions/support-services/public-safety-dispatch/ 30 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical Priority Dispatch System. 31 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PDCA_Process.png. 32 www.gartner.com/en/research/magic-quadrant.
33 Vision 20/20, Community Risk Assessment Guide.
34 Vision 20/20, Outcome Measures Guide.
Santa Barbara City
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Santa Barbara, California
Performance Analysis
UPDATE 2024
April 2024
ATTACHMENT 2
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department i
Contents
Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................ii SECTION I: PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS UPDATE ................................................................. 1 Historical Performance and Workload Analysis (Update)........................................................2 Research Information................................................................................................................2 Service Demand........................................................................................................................6 Resource Distribution...............................................................................................................16 Performance Review ..............................................................................................................28 SECTION II: APPENDICES .................................................................................................. 46 Appendix A: Table of Figures.....................................................................................................47 Appendix B: References.............................................................................................................49 Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department ii
Executive Summary
In March 2023, AP Triton completed a Community Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover Deployment Analysis for the Santa Barbara City Fire Department (SBFD). In 2024, SBFD requested an update to the previously conducted performance analysis section of that study.
This update reaffirms the findings from the original CRA-SOC report conducted by AP Triton.
Our Performance Analysis Update verifies the existing conditions and strategies as previously outlined in the CRA-SOC.
Key reaffirmed findings include:
• Strategic Placement of Fire Stations: The original study noted that fire stations are strategically located to provide a response system consistent with risk and demand.
The new analysis supports this by discussing travel times from stations and the geographic distribution of incidents, indicating that the placement still effectively covers the majority of the jurisdiction.
• Impact of COVID-19 on Service Demand: The original study highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service utilization, suggesting a potential change in emergency service demand. The update notes the need for ongoing evaluation as the community recovers, affirming the need for continued monitoring and adjustment to these fluctuations.
• ALS and EMS Response Coverage: The original study identified challenges with ALS response times and recommended improvements in service coverage. The updated analysis continues to point out the significant proportion of EMS incidents and the consistency of response times, emphasizing the need for improving ALS coverage as previously recommended.
• Data Quality and Incident Reporting: Initially, there were concerns about the completeness and accuracy of data used for evaluating ALS services. The update identifies discrepancies in incident records between the CAD and RMS systems, reaffirming the need for better data quality assurance practices, a point also stressed in the original recommendations.
• Use of Technology and Information Systems: The original study emphasized the use of technology such as ImageTrend Fire RMS and Accela. The new analysis further supports the importance of robust data collection and integration systems to improve performance analysis and decision-making processes.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department iii
• Resource Deployment and Staffing Levels: Previous recommendations included modifying response assignments and considering increasing staffing levels. The update discusses the distribution of workload among units and the balance needed to maintain effective response times, supporting the idea of reevaluating resource deployment and staffing.
• Performance Standards and Evaluation: Recommendations for adopting and adhering to response time objectives were made in the original study. The update uses detailed statistical analysis, including the 90th percentile for performance measures, to evaluate current standards and suggest that these benchmarks continue to guide operational decisions.
This performance analysis update does not introduce new recommendations but emphasizes the importance of the strategies and recommendations outlined in the original CRA-SOC to address the evolving needs of the Santa Barbara City Fire Department. This updated analysis reaffirms the SBFD’s commitment to excellence by providing a datadriven foundation for ongoing improvements. It ensures that the department remains wellprepared to meet both current and future challenges through informed decision-making and strategic planning.
By maintaining a focus on these strategic areas, the Santa Barbara City Fire Department can continue to enhance its service effectiveness and community safety.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 1 Section I:
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS UPDATE
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 2 Historical Performance and Workload Analysis (Update) This section will give SBFD a general understanding of relevant response information. It is developed to assist the department with identifying its recent performance and creating baseline performance expectations. The SBFD, the City of Santa Barbara, and political leaders can then use this information to understand how their decisions, policies, and outside pressures affect performance.
This section is an update of the original study analysis. This section is a complete standalone performance analysis as tools, specific practices, and techniques change over time and with different analysts. Where applicable, the previous study will be cross-referenced to provide validity to the continuation nature of this section.
Research Information
The information within this section was developed from various sources provided by SBFD.
The original analysis was for data from January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2021.
Additional data was provided in January 2024, including information from January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2023. While the original data loads were available, SBFD changed incident reporting systems in 2019, and the quality and structure of the data downloads altered with the new system. Therefore, detailed information is evaluated here from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2023.
Statistics Discussion
Mathematical and technological methodologies must be used judicially to evaluate something as complex as an emergency incident response. Historical instances of incorrect evaluations lead to severe consequences in deployment and operational decisions. This analysis is designed to quantify and analyze available information. It is intended to be a starting place for the agency as it seeks to improve performance. However, leaders must understand the limitations of making decisions based solely on statistical study and utilize sound judgment with proven analytics.
Statistical Tools
Various statistical analytical tools were employed to create this section. The fundamental tools were categorization, percentile, and regression analysis. This helps paint a picture of historical performance, with some inferences that may help leaders identify positive and negative performance trends.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 3 90th Percentile
The time performance measures for this report are done using the 90th percentile measure.
While discussing the mathematics behind this measure is outside this report's scope, it is helpful to understand why it is utilized.
The most common reason to use this measure is that the industry has adopted it. If a fire agency wishes to judge its performance against standards or other agencies, it must use the 90th percentile. For example, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) utilizes the 90th percentile measure in most of its standards. In addition, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) requires reporting performance measures at the 90th percentile.
The statistical reason to use the measure is that it more fully captures performance and will identify trends in performance more quickly. As with most emergency services systems, the time performance data used in this study has a skew. When the data skews, it makes using other statistical measures less sensitive and representative. The following figure is a general example of data skew.
Figure 1: Data Skew1
In a symmetric distribution, the mean (average), median (middle of the data), and mode (the most frequent) are all equal. When the distribution skews, these three measures of the middle shift. Using the average, or mean, in skewed data left would underrepresent the bulk of the performance. While the opposite is true when skewed right. In SBFD's case, most of the time-performance data is skewed right. In this case, using the average would overrepresent the performance. It needs to be reiterated that this skew is typical and in a similar direction to other emergency services agencies. It is presented here as information only and not as a performance definition or an area of concern. The following figure shows the binned total response time and travel times for SBFD to identify the skew in the data.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 4 Figure 2: SBFD Data Skew
Data Discussion
Detailed data was provided from SBFD's primary incident reporting software (RMS) and the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. These different database tables were combined utilizing proven data engineering techniques into one analytical data set.
Data Engineering Findings
The number of incident records for the RMS and CAD systems was similar but had some differences. There were 48,752 individual incidents in CAD and 44,211 in the RMS. This indicated a 4,542 or 9% data drop from CAD to RMS. This warranted a more thorough study of the differences. In this case, 969 SBFD unit arrivals were logged in CAD that did not have a corresponding RMS report. This is a 2% drop in incident reporting data. While this does not represent a significant statistical issue, it needed to be presented as a possible area of improvement for the department. The following figure shows the total number of incidents, by units grouped by stations, and whether they were a backup or primary unit for 2020– 2023.
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
00:0001:0002:0003:0004:0005:0006:0007:0008:0009:0010:0011:0012:0013:0014:0015:0016:0017:0018:0019:0020:0021:0022:0023:0024:0025:0026:0027:0028:0029:00 Total Time Travel Time
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 5 Figure 3: CAD Units Dispatched, By Arrival, Not Captured in RMS (2020–2023) Unit records within the CAD data were merged with the RMS data to form a full analytic incident record for each incident. Of the 44,211 RMS incidents, unit data was available for 44,171 incidents, or 99.9% of incident records. Therefore, this analysis's total number of incidents is 44,171, with 56,798 unit records.
Data Error Handling
Data collection within the various data sets has the potential for significant errors. Although there can be many reasons for incorrect information, these errors are typically a combination of human input and collection errors. Various methods exist to manage these errors, including statistical exclusion, real-time exclusion, formula manipulation, and logic testing.
For SBFD, the information in the data fields had an average volume of error-prone data.
Therefore, most of the data did not require statistical intervention. However, to mitigate extremes that were likely inaccurate information, some data was excluded by formula or logic tests. The time segment math utilized a logic tree to eliminate negative and null sets.
Still, it only removed 8–18% of the data, depending on the time segment evaluated. The steps taken for each time segment are identified within those analyses. 0 50
100
150
200
250
BC Sta 71 Sta 72 Sta 73 Sta 74 Sta 75 Sta 76 Sta 77
Primary - Arrived Primary - No Arrival
Backup - Arrived Backup - No Arrival
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 6 Service Demand
The first dimension of the analysis is the overall system call load. Because this is a simple count of the incidents by type and location, no data was excluded after the previously described data engineering steps.
Volume Analysis
A simple volume analysis can indicate how often the department is called upon to respond to an incident. The first look is at the overall call counts grouped by primary categories in the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). Establishing the incident jurisdiction required a match between the geocoded information and the provided geographic boundaries. The following figure is the total number of responses recorded by the agency for the entire data set and the percentage of the categorized responses.
Figure 4: Total Incident Count (2020–2023)
Incident (NIFRS Group) Count Percentage of Total Responses SBFD Responses
Fire (100) 929 2.11%
Overpressure (200) 3 0.01%
Rescue-Medical (300) 29,250 66.37%
Hazardous Condition (400) 1,929 4.38%
Service (500) 891 2.02%
Good Intent (600) 8,994 20.41%
False Alarm (700) 2,060 4.67%
Disaster (800) 12 0.03%
Special (900) 0 0%
Total City of Santa Barbara 44,068 100%
Mutual Aid
Auto and Mutual Aid Received 3,645 8.27%
Auto and Mutual Aid Given1 638 1.45%
1 Includes the 493 incidents within the SBFD automatic response areas.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 7 Geographic Analysis
A call density analysis is helpful when reviewing the best location for apparatus placement.
It is also useful when evaluating where the prevention programs may have the most impact. The following figure geographically represents the incident density for the study period.
Figure 5: Incident Density (2020–2023)
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 8 As indicated in the previous figure, incident density is more pronounced in areas with higher population density. It generally follows Highway 101 and areas north of the highway.
However, pockets of greater incident volume are along the coast near Stearns Wharf and the harbor. Overall, incident density is driven primarily by medical responses. EMS incidents account for over 66% of the response volume. This creates a strong correlation between the overall and EMS incident densities. The following figure shows the EMS and rescue incident density.
Figure 6: EMS Incident Density (2020–2023)
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 9 While not unexpected, it is interesting to note the EMS incidents at the airport are clustered entirely around the terminal building. Fire incidents generally follow the same pattern as EMS and overall incident volume, although the volume is significantly lower. The following figure shows the incident densities for fire-related incidents.
Figure 7: Fire Incident Density (2020–2023)
While these clusters are not predictive of future incident locations, they may help leadership visualize where the emergency problems are located and possibly help focus prevention activities.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 10 Several addresses have more significant incident counts. These locations include shelters, senior and assisted living facilities, and medical care facilities. This is not uncommon as large populations are concentrated in one address. The following figure shows the top 10 locations by the address where SBFD responded.
Figure 8: Top 10 Response Locations
Location Location Type Incidents
816 Cacique St. Shelter 679
1116 De La Vina St. Senior Living 621
535 E. Yanonali St. Shelter 524
215 Pestas Ln. Medical Care 508
3880 Via Lucero Senior Care 505
3775 Modoc Rd. Senior Living/Care 448
227 E. Anapamu St. Senior Living 445
2566 Treasure Dr. Senior Living/Care 414
251 S. Hope Ave. Senior Living 390
900 Calle De Los Amigos Senior Living/Care 350
Temporal Analysis
The annual incident count for SBFD within the city has fluctuated slightly but seems to remain centered around 11,200 yearly incidents. There was a significantly lower incident volume in 2020. However, this is likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent societal shutdown. The following figure shows the annual incident volume for the City of Santa Barbara and the identified response area from 2020–2023, separated into EMS and other incidents.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 11 Figure 9: Annual Incident Volume (2020–2023)
Analyzing the incident volume by month, day of the week, and hour is valuable when attempting to schedule events or add staffing. Additionally, months may reveal seasonality for the service needs. At the same time, days and hours may indicate the population movement and activities throughout the days. The following figure analyzes incident percentages by month for January 2020 through December 2023.
Figure 10: Incident Volume Percentage by Month (2020–2023) 0 1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
2020 2021 2022 2023
EMS Other
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 12 There appears to be a slight deviation from the expected norm throughout the months.
January through June are slightly lower than expected, while the remaining months are somewhat higher. This indicates a slight seasonality, with heavier responses favoring late summer through fall. It should be noted that the variation is less than +/- 1% from the norm, with the most considerable variations in May and again in August.
Another dimension for evaluation is the percentage of incidents that happen by the day of the week. The following figure is the percentage of incidents that occur by the weekday and includes all the detailed incident data.
Figure 11: Incident Volume Percentage by Weekday (2020–2023) In this case, there is a slightly more pronounced deviation from the normal distribution of
14.3% per day. Sunday is significantly lower than expected, with Friday and Saturday marginally higher.
It can be helpful to combine the month and day dimensions to identify potentially significant combinations of the month and weekday. For example, the following figure shows the density of call volume by month and weekday from 2020 through 2023.
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
12.0%
14.0%
16.0%
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 13 Figure 12: Month and Weekday Volume (2020–2023)
Month Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Color Incidents
Jan 605–641
Feb 554–604
Mar 534–553
Apr 510–533
May 485–509
Jun 452–484
Jul 425–451
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
In this case, it is difficult to identify any specific pattern. The fact that the incident spread from 425 to 641 is significant. However, the distribution of the highs and lows is less telling.
What does appear is the higher Friday and Saturday throughout each month except August.
Another analytic dimension is to evaluate call volume throughout the hours of the day. For example, fire and EMS incidents are distributed unequally throughout most systems throughout the day. The daytime is typically more active than the evening, night, and early morning. The driving force behind this phenomenon is likely that people are awake and moving. The following figure indicates that SBFD closely follows this daytime pattern, with approximately 70% of incidents occurring between 8 AM and 8 PM.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 14 Figure 13: Incidents by Hour (2020–2023)
It is essential to understand the combination of the hour of the day and the day of the week. By evaluating that density, some hot spot times can be identified. In SBFD's case, the evaluation shows a consistent and statistically significant pattern of daytime calls regardless of the day of the week. A slight shift toward the later hours on Friday and Saturday indicates a weekend social scene within the city. However, this shift is not especially dramatic compared to some systems. The following figure indicates incident density by the hour and day of the week for all incidents between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2023.
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Percent of Incidents
Hour of the Day
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 15 Figure 14: Weekday and Hour Volume (2020–2023)
Hour Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Color Incidents
0–1 395–416
1–2 357–394
2–3 326–356
3–4 278–325
4–5 214–277
5–6 167–213
6–7 149–166
7–8
8–9
9–10
10–11
11–12
12–13
13–14
14–15
15–16
16–17
17–18
18–19
19–20
20–21
21–22
22–23
23–24
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 16 Resource Distribution
Several key performance metrics help identify the effectiveness of resource distribution. A broad allocation of resources allows for a more rapid first response to any given area.
However, the first unit is only a portion of the deployment question. It is critical to have enough units to respond to incidents' volume, type, and severity. It is also essential to attempt to equalize the unit responses.
Geographic Distribution Analysis
Units and stations should be distributed to allow the best chance of reaching an incident in its earliest stages. There are two primary sources for performance standards that address this geographic distribution. The Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) defines distance, while the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) utilizes time as a criterion.
The ISO uses 5 miles from a fire station as its standard for minimal coverage. The SBFD has eight stations within the jurisdiction. Seven stations are located within the large section of the city, while an additional station is located at the airport. Except for difficult-to-access areas, the city limits are all within 5 miles. The following figure shows the 5-mile travel distance from a fire station.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 17 Figure 15: ISO 5 Mile Distance
For full credit in an ISO Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS), any building within the jurisdiction should be within 1.5 miles of an engine company and 2.5 miles of a truck company. 2 The City of Santa Barbara has an engine for the seven stations within the city.
The station at the airport does not have an engine company. This provides decent coverage for most of the city's population centers. However, the airport does not have an engine company staffed by the SBFD, and the closest unit will come from an automatic aid station in Goleta. The following figure shows the 1.5-mile travel distance from each station with an engine company.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 18 Figure 16: ISO 1.5 Mile Engine Company Distance
The ISO judges specialized equipment, such as a truck company, separately from an engine company. While engine companies are typically found at most fire stations, truck companies are only located at specific locations. ISO requires these truck companies to be within 2.5 miles of any building. Since SBFD runs one truck company from Station 71, there is an extended travel distance in some of the outlying portions of the city. The following figure shows the 2.5-mile road travel from Station 71, where Truck Company 71 is located.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 19 Figure 17: ISO 2.5 Mile Truck Company Distance
Unit Workload Analysis
Unit workload should be balanced to maintain readiness, resiliency, and service availability. While it is prevalent for one unit to be busier than others, no crew should carry a load that is too heavy, making them less effective.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 20 Incidents by Unit
SBFD had 20 unique units and eight reserve units responding to all incidents within the incident records. However, over 88% of all unit responses were accomplished by the frontline engines, a truck, the airport units, and the battalion chief. The reserve engines account for 10% of the responses. Still, it was unclear which unit the reserves were taking the place of. The reserve truck responses are included with the truck, as there is only one to be replaced. The remaining units included chief officers, specialty units, and other response vehicles. The following figure shows the top responding units within SBFD for 2020 through 2023.
Figure 18: Workload by Apparatus Type (2020–2023)
57 88
455
889
1,674
12,945
1 91
247
281
223
1,729
11 75
234
1,882
3,220
27,340
- 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000
Engine-Brush
ARFF
Battalion
Truck
Engine-Reserve
Engine
EMS Fire Other
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 21 The workload is not evenly distributed across all the apparatus. Engine 71 is found on approximately 25% of all engine responses. Engines 72, 74, and 75 respond to a similar number, between 16% and 18% of engine responses. Engines 73 and 76 are slightly lower at 10% to 13%, and engine 77 responds to the lowest at 3%. The following figure shows the response volume of each apparatus for each year in the study period.
Figure 19: Annual Incident Volume by Unit and Year (2020–2023) Each incident requires a unit to remain on the scene to handle the situation. Therefore, a general idea of how long a specific crew will stay on the incident can assist operational planning. SBFD has four primary types of units that respond to emergencies. First, engines are the most flexible type of apparatus for general work. With the addition of elevated access, trucks can accomplish much of what engine companies do, depending on the equipment on the apparatus. Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) vehicles have a particular function in aviation incidents. Still, they can provide general incident response as well. Finally, command officers are any chief officers within the SBFD system. The following figure shows the average minutes each apparatus type was committed to a given incident category for the entire study period.
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
2020 2021 2022 2023
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 22 Figure 20: Unit Type Average Commit Time by NFIRS Category (2020–2023) Generally, battalion chiefs remain on an incident for 30 minutes, engines for almost 20 minutes, trucks for close to 23 minutes, and the ARFF units for 26 minutes on average. As expected, SBFD apparatus are committed to fire incidents the longest on average. EMS and other incident types have average commit times but remain under 25 minutes. The following figure shows the average unit commit time by incident and apparatus type groupings.
17.0 14.1
72.6 25.2
24.0 41.6
1.4 20.9
9.3 29.2
15.8 14.9
13.2 49.9
1.5 16.1
7.3 24.0
21.6 17.7
24.0 36.0
36.7 21.5
10.6 41.8
37.9 25.2
6.2 False Alarm (700)
Good Intent (600)
Service (500)
Hazardous
Condition (400)
Rescue-Medical
(300)
Overpressure (200)
Fire (100)
Special (900)
ARFF (& Reserve) Engine (& Reserve) Truck (& Reserve) Battalion Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 23 Figure 21: Unit Type Average Incident Commit Times (2020–2023) One final dimension of unit workload is how much time each unit is committed to incidents throughout the year. The unit hour utilization (UHU) calculation evaluates how much time a crew is committed to an incident versus the total time on duty during a specific time frame.
For this analysis, all responses less than 12 hours were considered regardless of location. The formula for this calculation is the total time committed to an incident divided by the sum of all time the unit is staffed.
𝑈𝐻𝑈 =
∑ 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑆𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒
∑ 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒
The desire is for the primary unit at a station, typically an engine company, the most flexible response unit, to be under 10% UHU. Maintaining 10% UHU should indicate the area has 90% availability from unscheduled events. Stations with multiple engines and quint companies should aggregate to less than 10% UHU for all similar units. 00:00
10:00
20:00
30:00
40:00
50:00
Battalion Engine (& Reserve) Truck (& Reserve) ARFF (& Reserve) EMS Fire Other
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 24 SBFD has a moderately busy system, and the crew unit usage is unevenly distributed.
However, none of the units are approaching cautionary UHU numbers. Capturing the entire crew workload required cross-staffed units to be added to the engine company at the station. One exception is the rescue/US&R unit at Station 71. Normally cross-staffed by the truck company, the engine may take the unit if required. The following figure shows the UHU for each staffed apparatus and the assumed assigned cross-staffed units.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 25 Figure 22: UHU By Unit Groupings (2020–2023)
Unit Average 2023 2022 2021 2020
Battalion (SBFD) 1.9% 1.6% 1.4% 2.2% 2.4%
Engine 71 Crew 7.6% 7.3% 7.9% 8.0% 7.1%
Engine 71 7.6% 7.3% 7.8% 8.0% 7.1%
Patrol 71 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Utility 71 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Truck 71 (Crew) 2.5% 2.5% 2.4% 2.7% 2.4%
Truck 71 1.8% 1.7% 2.3% 1.6% 1.6%
Truck 171 0.7% 0.8% 0.1% 1.0% 0.8%
Rescue (Crew) 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
US&R 71 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Rescue 71 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Station 2 5.6% 5.6% 5.4% 6.4% 4.9%
Engine 72 5.3% 5.2% 5.3% 6.1% 4.7%
HazMat 72 0.3% 0.4% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3%
Station 3 4.5% 4.4% 4.7% 5.0% 4.1%
Engine 73 4.5% 4.3% 4.7% 5.0% 3.9%
Brush 673 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
Station 4 6.4% 6.3% 7.2% 7.2% 4.9%
Engine 74 6.3% 6.2% 7.1% 7.2% 4.7%
Brush 374 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2%
Station 5 4.9% 5.3% 5.2% 4.6% 4.5%
Engine 75 4.9% 5.3% 5.2% 4.6% 4.5%
Station 6 3.9% 3.2% 4.1% 4.9% 3.5%
Engine 76 3.9% 3.2% 4.1% 4.9% 3.5%
Station 7 1.2% 1.1% 1.1% 1.4% 1.1%
Engine 77 1.1% 1.1% 1.0% 1.4% 1.0%
Brush 377 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1%
Station 8 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3%
ARFF 77 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
ARFF 78 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1%
ARFF 79 0.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 26 The data left it unclear what reserve engine was replacing what frontline company, or if it was responding as a mutual aid asset as an additionally staffed unit. For example, there were both Engines 171 and 71 on a single incident, indicating that one of the other seven engine companies may have used the reserve engine. Therefore, the reserve engine UHU is evaluated separately in the following figure.
Figure 23: Reserve Engine UHU (2020–2023)
Unit Average 2023 2022 2021 2020
Engine 171 1.4% 1.4% 1.6% 1.6% 0.9%
Engine 172 0.4% 0.6% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1%
Engine 173 0.3% 0.6% 0.4% 0.4% 0.1%
Engine 174 0.4% 0.5% 0.1% 0.2% 0.9%
Engine 175 0.9% 0.8% 0.9% 1.7% 0.3%
Engine 176 0.2% 0.5% 0.1% 0.2% 0.2%
Engine 177 0.1% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
While the UHU information helps identify if any single unit is overly burdened with the response, not all the time committed is apparent in the data. Crews may be out of service for maintenance, training, or other events that do not appear in this analysis.
Approximately half of a crew's day is spent in administrative, training, or recovery activities.
For example, assuming the crews are allowed 8 hours of rest and recovery daily, 2 hours for meals, and 2 hours for station, equipment, and vehicle maintenance, that totals 12 hours.
Additional time is usually given to physical fitness, training, and public education.
Concurrency Analysis
Incidents that happen simultaneously can impact an agency's ability to respond. While SBFD maintains multiple units at each station, there may be times when all crews are engaged, leaving the jurisdiction reliant on outside aid.
The first dimension of the concurrency evaluation is how often, within SBFD's primary jurisdiction, there is more than one incident at any given time. For example, the following figure shows how frequently multiple incidents happen simultaneously within the City of Santa Barbara.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 27 Figure 24: Concurrent in the City
Incidents Operating Percentage of Incidents
1 66.9%
2 26.2%
3 5.7%
4 or More 1.0%
As is evident, it is not uncommon for SBFD to be running simultaneous incidents within the jurisdiction. There is a 26% chance that another incident will start before the first incident is completed. However, responding to more than 4 incidents is rare. The maximum number of concurrent incidents in the data was 7. However, the jurisdictional issue is not a holistic picture for SBFD. The agency occasionally responds outside the city, as indicated in the jurisdictional incident count study. The following figure demonstrates how often SBFD works on multiple incidents throughout the response system.
Figure 25: Concurrent Entire System
Incidents Operating Percentage of Incidents
1 66.7%
2 26.4%
3 5.8%
4 or More 1.1%
As is evident, the entire system does shift the concurrency slightly higher. Still, the maximum remaining 7 incidents is well within the 7 engines, 1 truck, and ARFF capacity.
Another factor in unit workload is the number of units assigned to a specific incident. The majority of SBFD incidents, over 82.7%, are accomplished by one company. Almost 96% are handled by one or two companies. The following figure shows the percentage of incidents where the specified number of response units were assigned to an incident.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 28 Figure 26: Apparatus per Incident
Apparatus per Incident Percentage of Incidents
1 82.7%
2 13.2%
3 1.7%
4 0.9%
5 0.7%
6 or More 0.7%
While many apparatus response groupings are possible, SBFD sends the same apparatus combination over 80% of the time. The following figure shows the number of single unit responses and the top 5 apparatus combinations, which account for 87.4% of all incidents.
Figure 27: Common Unit Combinations
Apparatus Combination Percentage of Incidents
Single Unit 82.7%
E76 & HP1 1.3%
E71 & TK71 1.1%
E74 & E75 1.1%
E71 & E72 0.6%
E72 & E73 0.4%
Performance Review
When evaluating a system, having a set of objectives or standards against which to judge performance is helpful. While national and state standards may be recommended, in California, it is up to the authority having jurisdiction to adopt specific ones. In this case, the SBFD has adopted two standards. The call processing goal of 60 seconds, 90% of the time or better, is consistent with the NFPA standards. However, the adopted 6-minute, 15- second fire department response time is unique to SBFD. Other goal references will include the NFPA 1710: Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments (NFPA 1710). It will also include portions from NFPA 1225: Standard for Emergency Services Communications (NFPA 1225).
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 29 Evaluating overall performance requires an understanding of the lifecycle of an incident. It starts with a normal state and should end with a new normal state, but there are many measurable time segments in between. Some elements, such as call processing and turnout time, can be improved by tactical management techniques such as training and policy. However, other time segment performances, such as travel time, are typically managed by a strategic methodology such as station location. The following figure identifies each time segment in the incident lifecycle.
Figure 28: Incident Lifecycle
The incident data provided did not allow for analysis of all time segments in the above list.
However, enough information was provided to evaluate call processing, turnout, travel, fire department response, and total response time. While SBFD has adopted call processing and fire department response time standards, other available time segments do not have an associated standard. Therefore, the NFPA standards will be used as a performance benchmark. The following figure indicates each time segment, standards referenced, and the most influential organizational actions.
State of Normalcy
Discovery of Event
Call Initiation (9-1-1 e.g.)
Alarm Transfer Time*
Alarm Answering Time
Alarm Processing Time
Turnout Time
Travel Time
Arrival Time – Initiating Actions
Control and Mitigate Event
Recovery
State of Normalcy
Soft
Data
Hard Data
Total Response Time
Call Processing
NFPA 1225
Response Times
NFPA 1710
Fire
Department
Impact Zone
* Needed for organizations that are not the primary PSAP.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 30 Figure 29: Incident Segment KPIs
Incident Segment Primary Agency
Influence Standard Benchmark
Normalcy Prevention
Local
Codes &
Ordinances
Community Risk Assessment
Discovery Public Education TBD
Notification Public Education TBD
Call Answer1
Dispatch Staffing,
Systems, Policy, &
Training
NFPA 1225
15 Sec 90th Percentile
20 Sec 95th Percentile
Call Transfer 30 Sec 90th Percentile
Call Processing 60 Sec 90th Percentile (priority)2
Turnout Time Station Design,
Policy & Training
NFPA 1710
60 Sec 90th Percentile (EMS)
80 Sec 90th Percentile (Other)
Travel Time (1st Due)
Station Location,
Systems, & Training
4 Min 90th Percentile
Travel Time (2nd Due) 6 Min 90th Percentile
Travel Time (ERF)
8 Min 90th Percentile
(Low or Moderate Risk)
10 Min 10 Sec 90th percentile
(High Risk)
Action Initiation or
Patient Contact
Station Location,
Systems, Staffing,
& Training
TBD
Control/Mitigation TBD
Recovery Prevention &
Public Education
Updated
Codes &
Ordinances
Community Risk Assessment
New Normal Prevention
Local
Codes &
Ordinances
Community Risk Assessment
1 Applies to both PSAP and Secondary Answering (Agency) Dispatch Centers 2 Non-Priority Incidents are exempt from NFPA 1225. Agencies are expected to set standards.
The time segment performance standards are evaluated as a percentile. This will allow SBFD to compare its performance against other agencies and the standard with a similar statistical technique.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 31 Call Processing Analysis
There are several time measures of a dispatch center. The metrics identified in NFPA 1225 and NFPA 1710 are ring time and call processing. Ring time measures when the phone in dispatch begins to ring until someone answers. NFPA 1225 requires the ring time to be less than 15 seconds, 90% of the time and less than 20 seconds, 95% of the time. Call processing indicates the time it takes from when a person answers the call for help until the first unit is notified of an incident. Ring time is typically captured in a separate system, and the raw data was unavailable for this report. However, sufficient data were available to evaluate call processing.
Call processing should start from when the phone is answered until the first, preferably correct, unit has been notified an incident is in progress. However, there is typically a short period, usually seconds, from when the phone is answered, and the incident is started in the computer-aided dispatch system. For this analysis, it is assumed this short period, while not captured, is inconsequential. The NFPA 1710 standard indicates that a high-priority incident should be processed within 60 seconds, 90% of the time. NFPA further defines specific call types to be processed within 90 seconds, 90% of the time and 120 seconds, 99% of the time. These incident types include those requiring emergency medical questioning, hazardous materials incidents, and technical rescue incidents. This additional time is available for persons needing translation, calls from devices used by hard-of-hearing individuals, text messages, and calls requiring location determination.
The data provided was evaluated for integrity and reliability. It was found that the data was generally reliable. Specific incidents were excluded to find the emergency call processing times. These excluded incidents include mutual and automatic aid outside the jurisdiction, incidents without units in the data, canceled units, and "null" incident categories. However, that did leave 33,531 incidents, or 76% of all incidents, for evaluation.
Overall, the Santa Barbara Police Combined Communications Center (SBPCCC) processed calls at approximately 2 minutes, 23 seconds or faster, 90% of the time. The following figure shows the call processing time at the 90th percentile based on the NFIRS incident grouping for 2020–2023.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 32 Figure 30: Call Processing by NFIRS Category (2020–2023) Another dimension of the call processing time is how incident workload affects dispatch center performance. Again, SBPCCC manages the workload well, and the call processing time remains relatively consistent by the hour. The following figure is the call processing times of medical incidents and all other incidents by the hour of the day, with the call load added as a reference.
00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00
Special (900)
False Alarm (700)
Good Intent (600)
Service (500)
Hazardous Condition (400)
Rescue-Medical (300)
Overpressure (200)
Fire (100)
2023 2022 2021 2020
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 33 Figure 31: Call Processing by Hour (2020–2023)
Annual call processing has remained consistent for all years in the analysis. One exception is a sizable drop in call processing times for EMS incidents from 2020 to 2021. The following figure shows the annual call processing time by general categories.
Figure 32: Annual Call Processing (2020–2023)
0.0%
1.0%
2.0%
3.0%
4.0%
5.0%
6.0%
7.0%
00:00
00:30
01:00
01:30
02:00
02:30
03:00
03:30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Call Processing Time
Percent of Workload
Hour
EMS - Performance (90th) Other - Performance (90th)
EMS - Incident Workload Other - Incident Workload 03:22 02:3903:11 01:4502:1502:55 01:51 02:49 02:52 02:02 02:57 03:10 00:00
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
EMS Fire Other
2020 2021 2022 2023
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 34 Turnout Time Analysis
Turnout time is the difference between when the unit is notified of an incident and when they begin to respond. NFPA 1710 indicates the performance measure for this time segment is 60 seconds for medical incidents and 80 seconds for fire incidents. For this analysis, the incidents will be grouped by EMS and others.
Some incident data needed to be limited to create the most realistic turnout time evaluation. First, data missing either the dispatch time, the en route time, or where the dispatch time was later than the en route time was eliminated as erroneous. In addition, units without arrival times and incidents where automatic or mutual aid was given or received were removed. Finally, only SBFD frontline units were evaluated, and the turnout time was limited to a 10-minute maximum as it was a natural break between the meaningful data and the extremes outside the maximum limit.
The data was analyzed for statistical reliability, and over 30-thousand-unit records could be measured. This represents approximately 53% of the recorded information, a typical percentage in this type of analysis. Overall, SBFD staffed apparatus has a turnout time of 2 minutes, 11 seconds, 90% of the time or faster. The following figure shows the turnout times by unit and general incident types.
Figure 33: Turnout Time by Apparatus and Incident Type (2020–2023) Each apparatus is staffed with three shifts, each with different turnout methodologies. The following figure shows the turnout time in the 90th percentile for each staffed unit grouped by shift and general incident type.
00:00:00
00:00:30
00:01:00
00:01:30
00:02:00
00:02:30
00:03:00
00:03:30
00:04:00
00:04:30
Engine Truck ARFF
EMS Other
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 35 Figure 34: Unit Turnout Time by Shift
The temporal evaluation of the turnout time shows the analysis of the changes in the percentile by the hour of the day and annual performance. Since SBFD staffs their units 24 hours a day, it is expected that crews can try to sleep at night. However, sleeping personnel can impact how fast they can get to the apparatus and begin to respond. The following figure shows the turnout percentile by the hour of the day, with the workload by general incident type added for reference.
00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
EMS
Other
TK71 E77 E76 E75 E74 E73 E72 E71 ARFF
C B A
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 36 Figure 35: Turnout Time by Hour (2020–2023)
It is interesting to note the inverse pattern of turnout times and workload. This phenomenon is common in agencies with lower call volume at night. This can be explained as a combination of crews resting and fewer incidents to analyze. A limited data set is typically much more susceptible to higher times and more obvious data swings.
Finally, an annual evaluation of turnout time shows that SBFD crews have responded slightly slower in 2023. However, this variation is minimal and does not necessarily identify a trend.
The following figure illustrates the annual turnout time performance by incident group. 0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
00:00
00:30
01:00
01:30
02:00
02:30
03:00
03:30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Percent of Workload
Turnout Time Performance
Hour
90th Percentile Turnout - EMS 90th Percentile Turnout - Others Incident Load - EMS Incident Load - Others
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 37 Figure 36: Annual Turnout Time Performance by Incident Type (2020–2023) Travel Time Analysis
NFPA 1710 lists several travel time requirements for apparatus. The first defined travel time is the first unit, either an engine or a truck that can operate as an engine, should be 4 minutes. The second-due engine should travel 6 minutes, and the first alarm should arrive within 8 minutes for a moderate-risk structure fire.3
Travel time is the difference between when the apparatus goes enroute and when it arrives on the scene. Travel time for the incident is from when the first arriving unit is enroute until it comes on the scene. The following chart shows the theoretical travel times from the seven SBFD stations with engine apparatus. The following figure illustrates the 4- and 8- minute travel times from SBFD's fire stations.
Travel times were limited to those incidents listed as an emergent response where the dispatch times and arrival times were not "null" and where dispatch times were less than the arrival time. In addition, the maximum travel time was limited to 20 minutes to be included in the analysis as that is the estimated time to drive from the Montecito Inn on Coast Village Road and La Colina Junior High School on Foothill Road. These locations were chosen because they are located diagonally across the city and response areas. 02:05 02:14 02:12 02:06 02:11 02:14 02:11 02:0602:23 02:11 02:22 02:24 00:00
00:30
01:00
01:30
02:00
02:30
EMS Fire Other
2020 2021 2022 2023
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 38 Figure 37: 4- and 8- Minute Travel Time Model (2020–2023) Theoretically, the distribution and concentration are appropriate for the city's core.
However, the airport must rely on automatic aid stations to accomplish an excellent firstdue travel time.
Theoretic models are beneficial when evaluating what can happen. However, considering the actual performance may give a better understanding of what SBFD can provide.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 39 First Due Apparatus
The first due travel time performance for SBFD is just over 6 minutes for all incidents within the city and the listed SBFD response area. The following figure shows the first due travel time for emergency responses by the city or fire department response area and incident types.
Figure 38: First Due Travel Time by Incident Type and Area (2020–2023) Because EMS calls are the most significant percentage of emergent incidents and the stations are so similarly staffed, the EMS times appear to be the primary driver of the overall performance time.
Time of day can have an enormous impact on travel times. In addition, crew readiness, traffic patterns, and incident volume can impact travel times. Nevertheless, SBFD's travel times throughout the day remain relatively consistent. The following figure shows the first due travel times by the hour, with the workload shown for reference. 05:42
07:46
06:30
06:06
10:28
07:35
00:00
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
EMS Fire Other
In City Auto Aid Area
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 40 Figure 39: Travel Time by Hour (2020–2023)
Finally, the annual travel times for the first apparatus have not changed significantly. The first-due travel times for areas outside the city limits but within the response area are slightly elevated. However, a primary driver of this phenomenon is the limited number of responses outside the city limits, allowing for a much higher sensitivity to travel time outliers. The following chart shows both the city and response area travel times, indicating the total number of responses for reference.
0.0%
1.0%
2.0%
3.0%
4.0%
5.0%
6.0%
7.0%
00:00
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Percent of Workload
Travel Time
Hour
In City Travel (90th Percentile) Workload
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 41 Figure 40: Annual Travel Times by Area (2020–2023)
Effective Response Force
The second dimension of the travel time analysis is how well the effective response force (ERF) needed for a type of incident can be assembled. ERFs change with the complexity and resources required of any incident. They can range from one unit to multiple units with specialty equipment. SBFD can maintain consistent ERF travel across all incident types due to the concentration of apparatus out of its two stations. The following figure shows the travel time for emergent incidents of the first three units arriving. 05:59 05:55 05:50 05:57
07:07 07:14
05:57
09:00
00:00
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
0 1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
10,000
2020 2021 2022 2023
90th Percentile Travel Time
Number of Incidents in Analysis
In City - Travel (90th Percentile) Auto Aid Area - Travel (90th Percentile) In City - Incidents Auto Aid Area - Incidents
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 42 Figure 41: Historic Travel, First Three Units (2020–2023) There is little difference between the third unit's arrival and subsequent times. Again, this is primarily due to concentration, and the apparatus responds from eight locations. Because of this, there is minor variation based on the two commonly evaluated incident types.
Fire Department Response Time Analysis
One time segment not identified by the NFPA or Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) is from when the fire department is notified until it arrives on the scene.
The value of this measure is in how the fire department evaluates its specific performance, regardless of how the communications center performs. The overall fire department response time for SBFD is 7 minutes, 25 seconds, or faster, for 90% of the responses. The following figure shows the annual fire department performance by incident type.
5.93 8.77
12.17 0
2 4
6 8
10 12
14 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1 2 3
Travel Time Minutes
Percent of All Incidents
Order of Unit Arrival
Percent of Incidents 90th Percentile Travel
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 43 Figure 42: Annual Fire Department Response Times by Group (2020–2023) Total Response Time Analysis
The reason each time segment is analyzed is to get an understanding of where performance can be measured and improved. However, the primary performance measurement is the total response time. The person in need sees this as the fire department's performance. For example, as previously discussed, SBFD's fire department time for all incidents is 7 minutes, 25 seconds or faster, 90% of the time. However, the total response time is 8 minutes, 59 seconds or faster, 90% of the time. The following figure shows the annual first due total response time by incident type.
Figure 43: Annual Total Response Time by Group (2020–2023) 07:1309:08 07:59 07:1109:10 07:51 07:08 09:26 08:09 07:10 09:47 08:16 00:00
02:00
04:00
06:00
08:00
10:00
EMS Fire Other
2020 2021 2022 2023 09:1811:14 10:14 08:21 11:10 09:22 08:27 11:18 09:52
08:38
11:57
10:03
00:00
02:00
04:00
06:00
08:00
10:00
12:00
EMS Fire Other
2020 2021 2022 2023
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 44 One of the most straightforward methods of displaying the total response time was developed by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI). Annually, the CFAI requires an accredited agency to report its performance by response program in chart form. These charts show the incident time segments culminating in the total response time of the first unit and the entire ERF. While each element leading up to the total response time is self-explanatory and was explored in earlier sections of this report, the total response time can be confusing.
It may seem that the 90th percentile call processing plus the 90th percentile turnout and travel times would equal the 90th percentile total time. However, this is not usually the case.
Each time segment is analyzed independently, including the total response time. The total response time does not add the segments' percentiles due to the variability of the time segments within each incident.
Structure Fire Responses
A moderate-risk structure fire is a basis for a first alarm assignment for SBFD. These incidents include smoke in a building, small outside building fires, commercial vehicle fires, a singlefamily residence fire, a lightning strike to a building, an automatic fire alarm at a high-risk occupancy, or a hazardous materials pipeline fire. SBFD had defined an ERF for a moderate-risk structure fire as 3 engines, 1 truck, and 1 chief officer. The following figure shows the total response time for moderate-risk structure fires and the ERF total time.
Figure 44: Structure Fire Total Times (2020–2023)
09:54
26:23
00:00
05:00
10:00
15:00
20:00
25:00
30:00
First Due Total Time ERF Total Time
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 45 While the previous figure is interesting, it does not necessarily provide any insight into actual performance. For example, minor structure fire incidents are susceptible to outlying data. In addition, there is no context to understand the difference between the number of fires and the number of effective response force arrivals. The following figure shows the total response time by time segment for moderate-risk structure fires where n = the number of responses. The figure is based on the chart required by the CFAI-accredited agencies.
Figure 45: Time Segment Chart, SBFD Structure Fire Performance (2020–2023) Time Segment 4 Year
Total 2023 2022 2021 2020
Call Processing 01:51 01:59 01:45 01:50 02:19
Turnout Time 02:32 02:43 02:15 02:33 02:27
First Travel Time 06:02
(n=175)
06:29
(n=42)
04:34
(n=36)
05:44
(n=52)
06:07
(n=45)
ERF Travel 14:43
(n=32)
18:48
(n=11)
18:53
(n=4)
13:04
(n=8)
11:05
(n=9)
First Total Time 09:54
(n=174)
09:53
(n=42)
10:37
(n=36)
09:27
(n=51)
10:18
(n=45)
ERF Total Time 26:23
(n=25)
26:25
(n=10)
25:54
(n=4)
23:32
(n=7)
25:16
(n=4)
CFAI charts would also include the benchmarks adopted by the agency. However, SBFD has not adopted performance standards. It also becomes apparent how data points can skew a 90th percentile figure when there are high values and a lower frequency. Typically, the CFAI considers any data set under 100 statistically insignificant. However, this information does show the value of looking at each time segment.
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 46 Section II:
APPENDICES
Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 47 Appendix A: Table of Figures
Figure 1: Data Skew..........................................................................................................................3 Figure 2: SBFD Data Skew.................................................................................................................4 Figure 3: CAD Units Dispatched, By Arrival, Not Captured in RMS (2020–2023).........................5 Figure 4: Total Incident Count (2020–2023)....................................................................................6 Figure 5: Incident Density (2020–2023) ...........................................................................................7 Figure 6: EMS Incident Density (2020–2023) ...................................................................................8 Figure 7: Fire Incident Density (2020–2023).....................................................................................9 Figure 8: Top 10 Response Locations............................................................................................10 Figure 9: Annual Incident Volume (2020–2023)...........................................................................11 Figure 10: Incident Volume Percentage by Month (2020–2023)...............................................11 Figure 11: Incident Volume Percentage by Weekday (2020–2023) .........................................12 Figure 12: Month and Weekday Volume (2020–2023)................................................................13 Figure 13: Incidents by Hour (2020–2023).....................................................................................14 Figure 14: Weekday and Hour Volume (2020–2023)...................................................................15 Figure 15: ISO 5 Mile Distance .......................................................................................................17 Figure 16: ISO 1.5 Mile Engine Company Distance.....................................................................18 Figure 17: ISO 2.5 Mile Truck Company Distance........................................................................19 Figure 18: Workload by Apparatus Type (2020–2023) ................................................................20 Figure 19: Annual Incident Volume by Unit and Year (2020–2023)...........................................21 Figure 20: Unit Type Average Commit Time by NFIRS Category (2020–2023)..........................22 Figure 21: Unit Type Average Incident Commit Times (2020–2023)...........................................23 Figure 22: UHU By Unit Groupings (2020–2023).............................................................................25 Figure 23: Reserve Engine UHU (2020–2023).................................................................................26 Figure 24: Concurrent in the City ..................................................................................................27 Figure 25: Concurrent Entire System .............................................................................................27 Figure 26: Apparatus per Incident................................................................................................28 Figure 27: Common Unit Combinations.......................................................................................28 Figure 28: Incident Lifecycle..........................................................................................................29 Figure 29: Incident Segment KPIs..................................................................................................30 Figure 30: Call Processing by NFIRS Category (2020–2023)........................................................32 Figure 31: Call Processing by Hour (2020–2023)...........................................................................33 Figure 32: Annual Call Processing (2020–2023)............................................................................33 Figure 33: Turnout Time by Apparatus and Incident Type (2020–2023) ....................................34 Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 48 Figure 34: Turnout Time by Shift .....................................................................................................35 Figure 35: Turnout Time by Hour (2020–2023)...............................................................................36 Figure 36: Annual Turnout Time Performance by Incident Type (2020–2023) ..........................37 Figure 37: 4- and 8- Minute Travel Time Model (2020–2023) ......................................................38 Figure 38: First Due Travel Time by Incident Type and Area (2020–2023) .................................39 Figure 39: Travel Time by Hour (2020–2023)..................................................................................40 Figure 40: Annual Travel Times by Area (2020–2023) ..................................................................41 Figure 41: Historic Travel, First Three Units (2020–2023) ................................................................42 Figure 42: Annual Fire Department Response Times by Group (2020–2023)............................43 Figure 43: Annual Total Response Time by Group (2020–2023) .................................................43 Figure 44: Structure Fire Total Times (2020–2023) .........................................................................44 Figure 45: Time Segment Chart, SBFD Structure Fire Performance (2020–2023) ......................45 Performance Analysis Update Santa Barbara City Fire Department 49 Appendix B: References
1 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC, creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-sa/3.0/. 2 www.isomitigation.com/ppc/technical/criteria-for-deployment-analysis-of-companie. 3 National Fire Protection Association. Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Departmentss.2020) [Appendix D].
RESOLUTION NO.
A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SANTA BARBARA AMENDING RESOLUTION
NO. 25-066, ADOPTING THE BUDGET FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2026, TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS
FOR A FIRE STATION LOCATION AND FACILITY
MASTER PLAN
WHEREAS, in accordance with the City Charter, the City Administrator filed with the Council a proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025; WHEREAS, the City Council is required to adopt a budget before the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, 2025;
WHEREAS, Section 1205 of the City Charter provides that at any public meeting after the adoption of the budget, the City Council may amend or supplement the budget by motion adopted by the affirmative votes of at least a majority of the total members of the City Council; and
WHEREAS, as authorized by Resolution No. 25-066, this Resolution approves the amendment to the budget as provided herein.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA THAT in accordance with the provisions of Section 1205 of the City Charter, the budget for the Fiscal Year 2026, as adopted by Resolution No. 25-066, is hereby amended as follows:
Section 1. The Council approves of appropriating available reserve funds that exist in the Measure C fund into a Fire Department Station Location and Facility Master Plan project in Fiscal Year 2026 in the amount of $100,000; and Section 2. The Council authorizes the City Administrator to review the appropriation for Fiscal Year 2026 and approve the continuation of this project into the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
Agenda Item No. 11
File Code No. 120.04