The San Luis Obispo County Fire
Department wants to put one more
firefighter on each of its engines and build a
minimum of three more fire stations.
But none of that is possible without a
funding source, Fire Chief John Owens told
the county Board of Supervisors on Feb. 25.
“We are the only fire department left in the
county that has only two people on their fire
trucks. The rest have three or more,” Owens
said. “Building more fire stations is going
to improve our response times because it’s
going to put fire apparatus in the areas of the
county that don’t have them.”
“Without the money, it’s not going to
happen,” he said.
Owens was presenting the Fire Department’s
progress on achieving strategic plan
recommendations, with much of that progress
hamstrung by a lack of dollars. Most of the
items, including high priority ones such as
building a new fire station in Santa Margarita,
were pending a new source of money such as
a special tax or bond assessment. However,
Owens added that the county is about to realize
one of the plan’s major recommendations,
which is the almost completed collocated
dispatch center in Templeton.
The recent LA fires, as well as the Mountain
Fire in Ventura and last year’s Lake Fire in
Santa Barbara, highlight the need to continue
making progress on the plan, he said.
“It does remind everyone that those kinds
of fires can happen anywhere at any time
because fire knows no political or financial
boundaries. It’s indiscriminate,” Owens said.
Fourth District Supervisor Jimmy
Paulding asked whether the board could
begin moving forward on any of the strategic
plan’s recommendations, which include
adding fire stations to West Nipomo and East
Arroyo Grande in his district.
“Any funding for any fire station … or
staffing … is going to come from a measure
of some sort,” Paulding said. That’s the “No. 1
takeaway from today.”
The board directed county staff to move
forward with a feasibility study on fire stations in
Santa Margarita, Oak Shores, and East Arroyo
Grande, each of which hinges on alreadypromised
land donations. That direction also
included bringing back options for what it would
take for the county to move forward with a tax
measure or benefit assessment.
Many of the residents who spoke during
public comment were from Oak Shores near
Heritage Ranch or East Arroyo Grande. One
East Arroyo Grande resident told supervisors
that in December 2020, there was a fire
behind the dryer in his home, so he called 911.
“The response time was 21 minutes,” he
said. “A couple of minutes can make a huge
difference.”
Firefighters were able to get the fire out,
but not before it and the sprinklers that went
off as a result caused almost $500,000 in
damage to his home.
While strategically placed fire stations are
important, 3rd District Supervisor Dawn
Ortiz-Legg said the staffing component
should be a high priority for the county. But,
as 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson
pointed out, the staffing plan alone would
cost the county an extra $19 million per year.
“This is a very sobering conversation. … I
like to get back to the reality of the times of
just where we’re at,” Ortiz-Legg said. “We’re
talking $20 million a year. … If we put this
under the Christmas tree, there’s not going to
be much else under it.”
It’s important to understand, she added,
that the county doesn’t have the ability to
simply write a check to take care of the issues
identified in the Fire Department’s strategic
plan, but it is something “we want to get
done.”
SLO County Fire is scheduled to go back
before the board on March 11, according to
County Administrative Officer Matthew
Pontes.
This article appears in Mar 6-16, 2025.