Oxnard committee acknowledges fire departmentreport that shows 38% residential compliance, cites 10 arson arrests

The Oxnard City Committee on Public Safety and Housing Development voted 3-0 on March 11 to adopt a resolution acknowledging receipt of the Oxnard Fire Departmentannual report on state-mandated inspections, as required by sections 13146.2 and 13146.3 of the California Health and Safety Code.

The report, presented by the Fire Chief (Oxnard Fire Department), highlights a 100% compliance rate for E occupancies (educational uses) and a substantially lower compliance rate for residential inspections, which the chief said is currently 38%.

The nut of the report is public safety: state law requires inspection of specified occupancies, and the department used the annual report to summarize inspection activity, enforcement challenges and related initiatives for the prior year.

The chief told the committee that the lower residential compliance rate stems from staffing and workload issues. Some inspections are performed by engine company crews as an auxiliary duty; those crews have struggled to keep up because of increased emergency call volume, mutual-aid responses and training demands. The chief said the department has focused more intensively on inspections in the last five years and is still locating buildings that had not been inspected for many years.

The report also notes 10 arson arrests in the past year; the chief said none of those cases had yet reached prosecution, and that Oxnard Fire Department investigators typically hand cases over to Oxnard Police Department detectives to prepare them for the district attorney. The chief said a longer-term goal is to develop the fire departmentcapacity to take cases through to prosecution.

The department described a grant to install 5,000 smoke detectors. The chief said one installation event was held in January and another is scheduled in May in partnership with the American Red Cross; roughly 1,000 detectors have been installed so far from the current grant. The chief added that the federal program administering the grant was expected to reopen applications in April, potentially allowing the city to seek additional detectors.

Committee members also pressed the chief on call volume. The chief said the largest driver of increased calls is medical emergencies, which rose after the COVID-19 period and have not receded; that trend, he said, is increasing overall call volume faster than population growth. The department is exploring a community paramedicine program to address lower-acuity repeat calls, and the countyBoard of Supervisors is expected to send a new ambulance service contract out to bid later this year, which the chief said could relieve pressure on the department.

Committeemember McPherley thanked the department for its work and referenced the 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland to underscore the stakes of life-safety enforcement. "It's amazing to see that your team is really working to ensure the safety and protection of our community," McPherley said.

The committee moved the item forward to the full City Council. The motion to adopt the resolution acknowledging receipt of the report was moved by Chair McArthur and seconded by Committee Member Perallo; the roll call vote recorded Chair McArthur, Committee Member Perallo and Committee Member Perez as voting "yes," and the motion carried 3 to 0.

The committee discussion made clear it views the inspection program as constrained by staffing and interdepartmental capacity, and the chief said the department will return with comparative compliance data from surrounding jurisdictions if requested.