Sebastopol's volunteer firefighters save budget

In the evening light, the red ladder truck rumbles through downtown Sebastopol, manned by a school teacher, a former Agilent manager, a city maintenance worker and an architectural firm?s project manager.

Also on board is a full-time firefighter, but his paycheck comes from the National Parks Service. This evening he is simply one more volunteer on a training run for the Sebastopol Fire Department.

Of Sonoma County?s nine cities, Sebastopol alone sends out all-volunteer fire crews to respond to house fires, car crashes and medical emergencies. Only the fire chief, John Zanzi, draws a salary.

The 107-year-old department and its 34 volunteers are a throwback to the rural traditions of the town of 7,700 people.

?Most of them are old-time Sebastopol boys,? said Venessa Mann, one of the department?s two women firefighters and a 1988 graduate of Sebastopol?s Analy High School. ?They know the town and they know the people.?

The volunteers say they love the work of firefighters, they enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded brethren and they want to keep alive their way of giving back to their community.

?It?s a pride thing, being able to keep our fire department the way it is,? and not switch to a paid staff, said Sean MacRae, who as engineer drove the ladder truck on Thursday evening?s training. MacRae is an 18-year volunteer with the department, an architectural project manager and a 1986 grad of Forestville?s El Molino High.

In a year when cities are facing unparalleled cuts tied to the state?s budget woes, the volunteer firefighters are one reason why Sebastopol has balanced its budget without laying off any city workers.

The city sets aside only $665,000 of its $5.1 million budget for fire services. At a minimum, a paid staff would require twice that amount, and Zanzi and outside fire officials estimate the cost more likely would exceed $2 million.

Switching to a paid fire department would make ?our budget equation much more difficult,? said City Manager Jack Griffin.

Sonoma County has roughly 400 volunteer firefighters among its 50 different fire departments, said Mark Aston, chief of Sonoma County Fire. Aston?s office oversees 14 all-volunteer departments with 250 firefighters spread through tiny hamlets such as Two Rock, Wilmar, Bodega and Annapolis.

In the region, the only incorporated cities with all-volunteer fire crews are Sebastopol and Napa County?s St. Helena.

The city of Healdsburg, with nearly 12,000 people, spends $2.8 million on fire services. Randy Collins, that city?s fire chief, said he has 11 paid staff members, but still relies on 29 volunteer firefighters.

?I don?t think the public appreciates the amount of time the volunteers put in to serve the community,? Collins said.

The basic training for a volunteer is the same as that of a career firefighter. Zanzi estimated that a probationary volunteer will put in 150 hours of training the first year, plus earn seven units of credit in emergency training from Santa Rosa Junior College.

As the training requirements have increased and fewer people work where they live, keeping enough volunteers has become more difficult for many county agencies.

Aston, who will present a report on the challenges to county supervisors next month, said Sebastopol?s volunteers have demonstrated that creating a sense of community in the department is critical.

?They are a great role model for volunteer agencies,? he said.

The average Sebastopol volunteer has been with the department 12 years. Each firefighters receives $11 for a fire run, and $12.50 for a training night. A grant allows the members to sign up for a few of 54 paid eight-hour shifts a month, but Zanzi said the funds for that program likely will end next year.

The volunteers said they have employers who are willing to let them leave work on a moment?s notice. More importantly, they have spouses who are willing to let a pager sound off near the bed in the middle of the night and who support the volunteers even when they miss family events to respond to the emergencies of strangers.

The Sebastopol fire department averages about 900 calls a year, nearly three a day. The average response time is 5 minutes, 30 seconds, Zanzi said.

Most calls are for medical emergencies. Some include serious car crashes, such as the July 3 accident when 15-year-old Julia Bertoli of Petaluma was struck and suffered major head injuries while walking across a downtown street.

On Thursday, the evening training for the ladder truck included practice with both hoses and ladder. The crew?s captain, Bill Braga, a former Agilent manager, is a 1973 Analy grad and a department volunteer for 25 years.

Braga recalled a day 20 years ago when he was the first to respond to a 911 call of an infant not breathing. A mother met him at the door with her seemingly lifeless son in her arms.

Braga began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the three-month-old baby and continued it in the ambulance. The child began breathing before reaching Palm Drive Hospital, and Braga was relieved to hear him crying in the emergency room.

Twenty years later, he said, that child, now a young man, still occasionally visits the station, and his mother and grandmother also go there to hug Braga.

?That is worth every hour of no sleep, of missed dinners, or missed parties, of missed ... family functions,? Braga said. ?That will stay with me my entire life.?

Having a volunteer department hasn?t meant higher home insurance rates, Zanzi said. Sebastopol is rated in the top 3 percent of fire departments in the nation.

On Oct. 18 the volunteers will host their annual community breakfast. The pancakes and eggs are free, but the volunteers last year still brought in about $25,000 from a raffle that benefits the department and provides college scholarships for Analy students.

?It?s always fun because the whole community comes together,? Mann said.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com