El Dorado Fire Community Relations

El Dorado Fire

Community Relations and the El Dorado Fire Department

The El Dorado Fire Department in El Dorado Hills, California faces many of the same demands form its community as any fire department might. The many stations throughout the city proper and in the county of El Dorado are staffed with both firefighters and EMTs and/or paramedics, as the fire department staffers serve as first responders to medical emergencies as well as fires and other emergency distress calls (EDH Fire 2010; EDC Fire 2010). Standard house fires and other calls such as car accidents, road blockages and other hazards, and individual medical emergencies make up a large portion of the fire department's activity and the community's concern with the fire department (EDH Fir 2010). There are also, however, some unique concerns held by the public in El Dorado Hills when it comes to their fire department and the service they provide, and likewise there are some special concerns by the fire department in regards to the community they protect.

These issues are born primarily out of the fact that El Dorado Hills is located on what is termed a Wildlife-Urban interface, which essentially means that the town, though fully urban and developed in both its business and residential neighborhoods, borders directly on areas that are still entirely wild (EDH Fire 2010; EDC Fire 2010). This comes with several attendant issues, of which wildfires are only one. Wild animal encounters, though not typically dangerous, have resulted in unnecessary calls to the fire department as a primary provider of emergency services (EDC Fire 2010). The many rural areas in the community also present special challenges to responses for any type of emergency, fire, medical, or otherwise (EDC Fire 2010).

The increased danger of wildfires in the undeveloped land surrounding and within El Dorado County, and directly bordering the community of El Dorado Hills, is one of the major perennial concerns both of the community of El Dorado and of the fire department operating within this community (EDC Fire 2010; EDH Fire 2010). Dry summers and the irregular terrain that is conducive to brush growth very easily catches fire from a variety of ignition sources, and because of the fact that the wild areas so prone to the fires border directly on business and residential communities there is a special risk for damage to both property and individuals form these wildfires (EDC Fire 2010). Home and business owners whose property directly borders on or lies close to the actual line of the Wildlife-Urban Interface are especially concerned by this threat every year, and the fire department is itself well aware of the issues and listens regularly to community feedback regarding high risk areas (EDC Fire 2010; EDH Fire 2010). At the same time, the fire department maintains updated information about fire dangers on the Internet and through a variety of other means, giving the community information they can use to protect themselves and their property throughout the year and especially at times of greater risk (EDH Fire 2010; EDC Fire 2010).