HomeMy WebLinkAboutEmail - Fire Station Closures from Susan Heffeman Menchaca, Clarissa
From: Clerk of the Board
Sent: Monday,April 24, 2017 9:27 PM
To: Menchaca, Clarissa
Subject: FW: To all the Members of the Board of Supervisors
Attachments: FB_IMG_1493045793456jpg
From: Susan Heffernan
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2017 9:26:44 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US &Canada)
To: Clerk of the Board
Subject: To all the Members of the Board of Supervisors
If the Jarbo Gap station# 36 was closed from November to March would ANY of you send a family member
or loved one on a trip up Highway 70 through the Feather River Canyon without worry? If an accident happens
one may wait for help from Quincy 60 miles away or Thermalito or Butte Valley Volunteers. Our local Golden
Feather volunteers number THREE firefighters...often too few to respond to any call. None of us can anticipate
an emergency heart attack, stroke, fall or traffic collision. Amador station Jarbo was on the possible cut list for
low volume of calls...if that ONE call involved your family it was well worth it. Much like reporters
minimizing losses to fire as "only one home lost"... well, if THAT was your home with all that you worked for
that fire is as big as the ones that take hundreds of homes.
Besides the obvious reaction of our insurance companies to drop us for coverage upon hearing 5 or 6 months
without a fire station, at Jarbo the closure could also affect other Federal, State, County and private users of the
Jarbo Heliospot, even though they remain unaware of it. BCSO keeps a fuel tank there for their helicopter as
one example. Law enforcement I would guess is the prominent user. The heliopot is on my property and I
have a lease agreement with Calfire (free of charge by the way). The crew at the station has always been the
gatekeeper and maintained the Landing Zone...they also maintain the RAWS Weather Station up on the hill
another FREE lease). Should the station close I doubt any of the helicopter's crews that use the spot-USFS,
BCSO, CHP, Calfire, Reach, Enloe, PGE,just to name a few I've seen will step forward to take on any of the
responsibilty or liability that the LZ is maintained and safe for landing...I know as property owner I will not
accept that responsibility. To me the Jarbo heliopot gets a lot of traffic due to both Highway 70 and Feather
River situations and is really a hidden gem as far as it costing any of the users anything....only a private
contractor for PGE offered and paid to use it which I ran by #36 Captains for their approval first. Most users
assume it is Calfire property I am sure.
Like many of my Yankee Hill Community I dread fire season; I have lost too many acres in several bad fires
in Butte County and still not over losing a home to fire in the Bay Area years ago. But since I never want to
live any where else the only option is to get involved in our local non profits and try to reduce our
risks. However even in our "non fire season" there is no substitute for the professionals at our Jarbo Gap fire
station. Perhaps the risk would be acceptable if we did not have busy Highway 70 going through our area with
hundreds of vehicles and trucks passing each day. Our canyon is both beautiful and deadly- in the last 3 months
there have been horrific accidents, many fatalities within Butte County lines...can't imagine those victims
waiting an additional 30 to 40 minutes and surviving.
Government's main responsibility to taxpayers is police and fire...we are used to getting by with little police
presence; please do not further risk our safety by closing our fire station. If you lived in any of the areas of fire
stations due to close 5 months a year how would you feel? Police and Fire need to be the last cut....every Dept
whether education, health or roads is LESS important and not as vital.
PLEASE do not close any fire stations. It is a matter of OUR life and death!
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Susie Heffernan
11826 Highway 70
Yankee Hill, CA 95965
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