The Shasta County Board of Supervisors adopted the county Fire Department’s Long-Range Master Plan and Community Risk Assessment on Oct. 13, then directed Fire Chief Sean O’Hara to return with recommendations on possible fire-station consolidations or closures before the county’s budget hearings.
The plan, described during the Board of Supervisors meeting as the product of an approximately 280-page study conducted over 18 months, identified long-term funding, staffing, volunteerism and wildfire risk as critical issues. The board approved the plan unanimously, according to the meeting transcript.
The station-consolidation or closure direction passed 4-1. The discussion connected the review to longer-term fiscal pressure and planning around the county’s CAL FIRE contract, but the meeting record does not identify which stations could be considered or estimate potential savings or effects on emergency response times.
The county has not yet specified when the budget hearings will occur or when O’Hara’s written recommendations will be released. The recommendations and the next budget hearings will determine what, if any, changes are proposed to station locations or county fire coverage.
