This week’s Citizens Academy class met at the new Fire Station 58 to give residents insight into what it takes for the City of Madera to have the incredible team that helps keep Madera safe.
Fire Station 58 was built six years ago and cost $9 million to construct.
“These facilities are not cheap. Everything’s hyper specialized, including, the pressure of the concrete,” Arnoldo Rodriguez, City manager, said. “People always say, ‘you can build it cheaper.’ Everything we do, we bid publicly, so if someone can build it cheaper, they can bid.
“They would have won the bid, they could have built it cheap. But one of the things you’ll see about these stations is that we don’t make them cheap. They have to last a long time. If there’s an emergency, this is the building that needs to be standing, because this is where the teams are. So, again, they’re not cheap.”
For this week’s class, Dana McCarroll, battalion chief from Station 56, showcased a slideshow that talked about the different reasons the city has a fire department and discussed how the budget is divided between the different fire stations.
A tour of the facility was given by Fire Capt. Nick Sciaqua, Fire Engineer Joseph Molina, as well as the other firefighters who were on duty during the class.
One thing about the newest fire station was how the new stations use a gentler alarm that slowly raises in volume to wake up the firefighters during the night, as studies showed that loud, blaring alarms can lead to heart problems in firefighters.
During the lecture portion, McCarroll explained how the Madera Fire Department has grown alongside the city as its population and emergency needs have increased. Because of the rapid growth of Madera, the city needed a third fire station to improve emergency coverage.
Currently, the department has about 25 personnel, with its engines staffed by three firefighters each. Previously, the department had followed a two-person staffing model. When opening the newest fire station, the department purchased an aerial ladder truck, Truck 58.
The department also relies on cooperation with surrounding cities during different types of emergencies. The City of Madera has an automatic-aid agreement with Madera County, allowing both City and County firefighters to assist one another when needed.
“They respond to the city quite a bit, and vice versa,” McCarroll explained. “All of our engines respond to the county as a way to assist them in their needs.”
Rodriguez explained that the downtown hotel fire was a good example of how surrounding agencies will send their engines.
“There were engines from all over the place, from North Central Fire District out of Fresno, Fresno County Fire District, the city of Fresno, Madera County, city of Madera,” Rodriguez said. “If an agent around us needs an assistant or if there’s a big fire, we will send engines. Like, Chowchilla doesn’t have a ladder truck, so if they have a fire, we’ll send our engines.”
A portion of the lecture was dedicated to talking about the funding that goes to the fire department. All of the funding is approved by the City Council, which allocates a certain amount of funds to the department each year. McCarroll explained that it costs approximately $9.5 million annually to operate, including about $7.3 million for its Cal Fire contract and $1.7 million for operations, fuel and other daily expenses.
Measure K, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2017, generates $7 million annually, with about half going to the fire department and the other portion going to the Police Department. A portion of the Measure K funding goes toward equipment replacement.
“The annual budget allocates budget to the Fire Engine Replacement Program. From 2018 through 2022, $200,000 a year were allocated, and that totaled $800,000,” McCarroll explained. “They [City Council] upped that after 2022 to the current $490,000 a year, and then the total there ends up being $2,450,000.”
Fire prevention has become an important part of the department’s work. Rodriguez explained that the city of Madera has been working to clear vegetation and debris from the Fresno River since 2020. The work they’ve done has helped reduce the number of fires and improved firefighters’ ability to access areas during emergencies.
“There’s a lot of challenges we’ve had, and a lot of emergencies in there. I think the community’s frustrated with the Fresno River. There’s historically a lot of fires,” Rodriguez said. “We just grabbed the bull by the horns, and we said, we’re gonna take the lead. We started buying the equipment, and we started doing it.”
During the tour portion of the class, the firefighters showed their living quarters, offices, gym, fire trucks and room storage. They even allowed participants to set off the fire hose and try on equipment to get a feel for what each firefighter has to do when getting ready and fighting fires.