Sacramento Fire Response Times Fall Short

SACRAMENTO, Calif. --

Both Sacramento Fire and Sacramento Metro Fire Departments failed in 2008 to meet a widely accepted national standard for fire response times, KCRA 3 Investigates has learned.

The standard, known as National Fire Protection Association 1710, was passed in 2001. It states that fire crews should arrive at the scene of a fire or medical emergency within five minutes, 90 percent of the time.

"It's a standard, a guideline, something you're going to shoot for," Sacramento Fire Chief Ray Jones said.

The standard is voluntary, meaning fire departments do not have to adopt it.

The Sacramento Fire Department has not adopted the standard, but does use it as a guideline, according to the chief.

KCRA 3 Investigates analyzed all Sacramento Fire Department calls for 2008.

We found Sacramento Fire Department made the NFPA 1710 standard of five minutes 90 percent of the time only in the downtown area.

We found response times dropped the farther one traveled from the downtown core.

The chief said the most troubling response times were in Natomas. The north area of the city grew rapidly, and fire stations could not keep up. The city is planning to build a station in west Natomas, at the corner of El Centro and Arena Boulevards, but that will not be completed for several years.

"Natomas is definitely a hot bed," Jones said.

The budget crisis also is affecting city response times. The Sacramento Fire Department initiated rolling brown-outs of fire stations with two companies about a year ago.

Jones said response times went up 30 seconds when an engine was browned out.

"Whenever you reduce the level of service, something's going to be affected. You just can't get around that," Jones said.

Despite growing budget concerns, Jones said NFPA 1710 is still the benchmark.

"We still feel as an organization, we need to shoot for that five-minute mark and do whatever we can as an organization and get closer to it," he said.

Continued below...

Please Load Adobe Flash

California Professional Firefighters, the state firefighters union, said NFPA 1710 is the gold standard for fire response.

"It sounds like a cliche, but seconds count. They count for lives, they count for property," CPF spokesman Carroll Wills said.

Wills said NFPA 1710 is based on fire science and emergency medicine. Fire doubles in size every minute and brain damage sets in after four minutes without oxygen.

But some fire departments, including the Sacramento Metro Fire Department, do not adopt or use 1710 as a guideline.

"1710 is a great standard, but for us, at this time frame it's very costly for us to meet that," Metro Fire Chief Don Mette said.

KCRA 3 Investigates analyzed Sacramento Metro Fire Department data for 2008.

We found Metro Fire did not meet NFPA 1710 in any of its fire district.

Metro Fire missed the standard 35 to 55 percent of the time in areas including Carmichael and Citrus Heights.

Mette said 1710 was created with gridded street systems, such as downtown Sacramento, in mind.

Most of Metro Fire's district is not gridded and contains natural barriers, Mette said, making it difficult for crews to get to fires and emergencies.

"The American River, the railroad tracks, Mainline Union Pacific -- which runs down Roseville Road -- limits our options to get across there," Mette said. "Those natural barriers cause us not to get through."

"If we were to fully implement 1710 we would have to basically bulldoze over 80 percent of our fire stations and relocate them so they're strategically placed," Mette said.

But the state labor union said 1710 should still be the goal.

"We're not going to sling grenades at departments that are not able for a variety of reasons to meet those standards," Wills said. "But we're not going to be shy about pointing out that those standards exist and they exist for a reason. And from a frontline firefighter, the more stations you have and the more personnel you have, the more likely they're going to get there quicker and have a better outcome."

Fire departments are allowed to set their own response times goals-- that's what Metro Fire did in spring of 2009.

It commissioned a $100,000 study of its coverage area and found that Metro Fire meets a seven-minute response time 90 percent of the time in most of its urban and suburban neighborhoods. It adopted a seven-minute response time in the populated areas.

"We try to do the best with what we have, that seven-minute timeframe I think is a very good timeframe," Mette said.

But Wills said residents should expect more, especially in the populated areas.

"Seven minutes may be OK a little further out of field, but I don't think that in most of the suburban area, the high population concentration areas, they're going to be satisfied with a seven-minute response time," Wills said.

Copyright 2009 by KCRA.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.