The other morning, Cal Fire was dispatched to a vehicle into a residence with both catching fire in Hidden Valley Lake. This dispatch included Medic 162, Engine 162 and water tender 162 all from the Cobb Fire Station. Additional units from Middletown, Hidden Valley and Lower Lake were also dispatched. At 1:30AM all units were still on scene. Thankfully, we on the mountain slept through this without incident. However, if a medical or fire emergency were to have happened, we would be out of luck. The next available fire or medical responders would have come from Kelseyville.
Something needs to be done so we residents of Lake County are not deprived of Medical, Fire or Law Enforcement response during times of need. If I had a heart attack on the night of the fire, you would be reading an obit instead of a commentary. Staffing is an issue, I know. At Station 162, you only have two firefighter/medics on duty at one time. If the Medic unit goes on a call, the Engine is not staffed as the firefighters staff both pieces of equipment. There should be two additional fire fighters “on call” for a 24-hour shift to cover the station in times like this.
Our County Supervisors need to sit down with our emergency services managers and find some sort of solution, so there will be no one dying needlessly or a house burns down that shouldn”t or some bad guy pistol whips a resident for money and jewelry.
I can sleep fairly comfortably at night as my wife is a Critical Care Nurse, and I have a gun on my night stand.
Vale Hanzel
Cobb
