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The Diamond Springs/El Dorado Fire Protection
District is an “all risk” agency that provides fire protection, emergency
medical services and specialized rescue services to approximately twenty
four thousand people, in a 93 square mile area.
The District is located on the western slope of
The District can be divided into three, distinct
areas: The core area encompasses the
townships of Diamond Springs,
The Diamond Springs/El Dorado Fire Protection
District is an “all-risk” agency.
The District participates in a sophisticated, automatic aid program
and is dispatched, through agreement, by Cal Fire, at Camino.
The resources of the District will respond to, and deal with, any
type of emergency. In this
document, the term “fire protection” is broad and includes responses to
fires, smoke and odor investigations, alarms, public assist calls, hazardous
materials incidents, medical aid calls and specialized rescues.
Structure Fires
The core area of the District contains a variety of
commercial, industrial, educational and manufacturing facilities.
These include shopping centers, several public and private schools,
mixed occupancy retail and commercial, a centralized hazardous materials
receiving facility, a materials recycling facility, government buildings,
high-tech manufacturing, pre 1900’s retail and various medical facilities
including large, multi-story retirement and convalescent complexes.
Of these occupancies, there are several that are vacant or undergoing
transformation from their previous uses.
These buildings vary in construction age and type.
Most of the higher density construction occurred after the adoption
of the Fire Code. As a result,
they have adequate water supplies to meet the fire flow requirements.
Many of the commercial structures in the District are covered by the
requirement for automatic fire sprinklers.
The single family, residential structure represents
the largest single fire problem in the District.
Organized residential development has been within the scope of the
California Fire Code and is protected by adequate water supplies and road
infrastructures. Much of the
single-family residential development has occurred on small parcels and has
not been subject to the requirements for water supplies and equipment
access. These isolated
structures are also at risk because of their exposure to the wildland fire
environment.
Vehicle Fires
State Highway 49 and U.S. Highway 50 quarter the Fire
District. These thoroughfares
support large volumes of civilian and commercial traffic.
As a result, the potential for fires involving vehicles and their
contents is significant.
Commercial vehicles frequently present the additional hazards of the cargoes
they carry, be they hazardous materials or simply large volumes of common
combustibles.
Vegetation Fires
Vegetation fires occurring within the prime watershed
area of the State of
The Fire District has long been the primary provider of rescue services
and has utilized state of the art equipment and training to conduct all
types of rescues. The statute requirements for firefighter training in
the rescue disciplines continually increases. As a result, the
District is well on its way to training volunteer and career personnel in
advanced rescue skills, e.g. confined space, high and low angle rope and
heavy rescue. The District deploys the Counties only medium duty
rescue unit to accommodate the necessary equipment for this task. This
unit is unique in its capabilities and has proven an asset to all of El
Dorado County. As the population of the county increases, the
potential for industrial rescues and mining accidents increases.
Development of this unit is a proactive step toward protecting the entire
community.
Approximately 70% of the District’s responses are related to emergency
medical and non-emergent aid requests.
This percentage is slightly higher then the national average.
This number may be partially attributed to the demographics of the
community. The District is home
to a significant population of retired and senior citizens residing in one
of several, senior or retirement communities and one large skilled nursing
facility. These citizens are at
risk for medical and injury related problems.
The District was involved with the inception of advanced life support
in
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