DeLuz, Rainbow VFDs to benefit from trust fund

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors authorized the award of $200,000 of trust fund money for fire protection districts and volunteer fire departments March 13, including $55,034 for the DeLuz Volunteer Fire Department and $22,658 for the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Department.

The money for the DeLuz Volunteer Fire Department, which will actually be given to the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority, will be used to purchase an emergency generator. The Rainbow Volunteer Fire Department grant will be administered by the North County Fire Protection District and will provide for personal protective clothing, fire hoses, and nozzles.

The county has committed $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDGB) funds each year for needs of the fire service and an additional $200,000, derived from the savings of refinancing the county’s Otay prison, into a trust fund for the capital needs of fire agencies. Although CDBG funds are restricted to eligible neighborhoods, the trust fund awards have no such restriction. The trust fund awards can also be allocated upon execution of the proper agreements, while the CDBG process also involves submittal to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which provides funding for the programs.

Applications for both sources of funding are reviewed by volunteers from the county’s Task Force on Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Services, who grade the applications and make recommendations for the entire task force to approve. The task force’s recommendations then go to the supervisors for approval.

The grant for the DeLuz Volunteer Fire Department will ensure that the fire station maintains power in the event of an outage or other power failure. The San Diego County Regional Fire Authority was created in 2008 and initially consisted of territory not within the boundaries of a public agency but served by a volunteer fire department (a subsequent phase added five county service areas created for fire protection and emergency medical service), although volunteer fire departments retained their autonomy and now work together with the paid firefighters covering those areas.

The Rainbow Volunteer Fire Department retained its autonomy after a 1986 merger which turned the Fallbrook Fire Department into the North County Fire Protection District, and the volunteer firefighters staff what is now NCFPD Station 6. The trust fund money will purchase new personal protective clothing while replacing old fire hoses and nozzles.

The trust fund grants approved on the supervisors’ 5-0 vote also included $30,325 to the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority to replace the Palomar Volunteer Fire Department’s old extrication equipment.

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