University of California, Santa Cruz Fire Department

The UC Santa Cruz Fire Department (now disbanded) was the agency tasked with protecting the University of California, Santa Cruz's rural, heavily forested campus and surrounding community. The department's primary responsibilities within the University were emergency response, fire protection engineering for new construction, fire prevention, public education, and disaster preparedness.[1] The department employed a 19 member, full-time staff, comprising six Firefighter Paramedic’s, six fire engineers, three captains, an assistant chief, a chief, an Emergency Manager and a Campus Continuity Planner..[2] The department responded to approximately 800-1000 incidents per year. It was one of only two fire departments in the UC system, along with the UC Davis Fire Department.

UC Santa Cruz Fire Department
Agency overview
Established1971-2014
Employees18 uniformed
2 support
StaffingCareer
Fire chiefJeff Trapp (Former)
EMS levelALS
Facilities and equipment
Stations1
Engines1
Wildland1

The need for the Fire Department was identified in April 1971, after a fire gutted the Hahn Student Services Building, one of the first university structures on campus. The catastrophe, exacerbated by the length of time it took the Santa Cruz Fire Department to respond from its stations in town to the conflagration in the center of the relatively remote campus, led directly to the establishment of the UC Santa Cruz Fire Department. -In 2014 the department was disbanded with 7 department personnel transferring to the Santa Cruz City Fire Department which is now contracted to provide EMS and fire services only to the campus. The on campus fire station remains open but is now staffed by 3 Santa Cruz Fire Department personnel per shift. The school retains ownership of the Fire station but transferred ownership of the fire apparatuses to the city.[3]

Apparatus

The department utilized two types of engines for emergencies.

Engine 2710 (2012 Pierce Arrow XT) - Type I structural response engine. This is the primary engine used by the fire department for emergency response. This engine will respond to most calls for fires, medical emergencies, vehicle accidents, fire alarms, etc.

Engine 2730 (2001 Pierce Model 25/International 4900 Chassis) - Type III wildland response engine. This engine is primarily used for wildland responses on (or near) the campus. This engine can also be used in the event of a mechanical failure to 3114.

Other vehicles included assorted SUVs and trucks which were used in various emergency situations.

Emergency Response

After the consolidation in 2014, all dispatch calls are routed through Santa Cruz County NETCOM dispatch center. Previously, dispatch calls were sent through UC Santa Cruz's own dispatch center.

The UC Santa Cruz Fire Department responded to hundreds of calls throughout the year. Incidents they responded to included but not limited to: medical emergencies, vehicle accidents, gas leaks, fire alarm activations and public assistance calls.

Not only did the fire department respond to calls on campus, but they also responded to off-campus emergencies as needed.

Notable events

Apart from the usual calls on campus, the UC Santa Cruz Fire Department has responded to many fires on campus. The most notable events are:

4/15/2010: The campus fire department responded to the report of smoke/flame in the construction site adjacent to the new addition to McHenry Library. Upon arrival, crews noticed heavy smoke coming from the 2nd floor of the construction site.[4] Additional crews were requested from the Santa Cruz Fire Department for mutual aid. The new addition to the library was promptly evacuated, and lead to the closure of the library for at least a week to clear out smoke damage, etc. The fire was extinguished within an hour of it breaking out. The two-alarm fire was caused by an overheated extension cord being used by the construction site workers. No major injuries were reported, with the only minor injury being a security guard on the construction site who suffered from minor smoke inhalation.

5/7/2009: The campus fire department responded to a report of the fire, with a subsequent fire alarm activation, at the Physical Science's Building. Campus crews and crews from neighboring fire departments arrived just after 2:00pm to discover a smaller contained fire in a lab on the third floor, which was extinguished almost immediately upon discovery.[5] The fire was ignited with a half-full bottle of hexane, which was being used by two graduate students at the time. The county hazardous materials team stayed throughout the duration of the afternoon to determine air quality in the lab and building. It was determined at 4:15pm that it was safe for people to re-enter the building. No injuries were reported.

1/11/2002: The campus fire department responded to a heat sensor activation at the Sinsheimer Labs around 5:30am. Upon arrival, crews noticed smoke and flame coming from a lab on the 4th floor in the south wing.[6] A report was put it for mutual aid from neighboring departments, including the County Haz-Mat team. The fire destroyed the lab in which it originated in, and most of a neighboring lab. Reconstruction had to be done on that portion of the building. Because there were no fire sprinklers in the building at the time (only a fire detection system)[7], a high demand for the building to be retrofitted with sprinklers lead to the installation of them in months following the fire. There was no cause determined, but it was speculated that a small piece of equipment may have overheated causing the fire. No injuries were reported.

10/1999: The campus fire department responded to a fire alarm activation and report of a fire in the Sinsheimer Labs around 5:00pm. Crews were called in from neighboring departments, including the County Haz-Mat team. The fire was caused by improper handling of a flammable solvent, Cyclohexane. The solvent was spilled on the floor by a graduate student who accidentally knocked it over while conducting an experiment with a fellow lab student. Instead of the students requesting help with the spill, they attempted to contain the spill themselves. However, the spill had gone under a few of the lab appliances, igniting a flash-fire which only lasted for a short while. There was minimal damage as a result, including some melted floor tiles and other objects. The only injury reported was by one of the graduate students working in the lab, who received first and second degree burns to the face and forearms.

See also
  • University of California Police Department

Notes and references
  1. "About The UC Santa Cruz Fire Department". UC Santa Cruz Fire Department homepage. Archived from the original on 2007-03-13. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
  2. "UCSC Final 2005 LRDP Environmental Impact Report, Vol. 2, Chapter 4.12" (PDF). University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
  3. McNulty, Jennifer (2000-11-20). "Every day is different for UCSC firefighters". Currents. 5 (16). Retrieved 2007-03-25.
  4. Public Affairs, UCSC. "Fire extinguished in McHenry Library - closed Friday". UC Santa Cruz. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  5. Burns, Jim. "Lab fire leads to building evacuation; 'minimal' damage and no injuries reported". UC Santa Cruz. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  6. Burns, Jim. "Two research labs gutted in Sinsheimer blaze". UC Santa Cruz. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  7. "UPDATE: Fires at University of California Science Labs Highlight Need for Sprinkler System". GenomeWeb.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.