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Santa Barbara Fire Department reports Q4 deployments, new hires and continued mutual-aid commitments
Summary
Fire Chief Chris Mails and division staff reported quarter 4 incident statistics Jan. 23, including recent structure-fire deployments, seven new firefighters, significant training hours and ongoing mutual-aid assignments to larger regional fires.
Santa Barbara Fire Chief Chris Mails told the Fire and Police Commission on Jan. 23 that the department's quarter 4 report (Oct.-Dec. 2024) included several structure-fire responses, mutual-aid deployments to regional incidents, and the addition of seven new firefighters who graduated Dec. 19 and are now assigned to duty.
Division Chief Bridal Federman presented Q4 incident-response statistics, saying the department's total call volume rose about 1 to 2% quarter to quarter and that turnout and travel times remained consistent with prior reporting. Federman highlighted the department's training commitments: the seven new recruits completed a 10-week in-house orientation that involved about 2,700 hours of training; operational personnel logged roughly 2,400 additional hours of required training.
Chief Mails and staff also reviewed community-outreach activity for Q4, including 22 events such as Toys for Tots drives, school visits and partnerships with Girls Inc. Staff said the department's average daily deployments and public-education efforts remain an ongoing priority.
The chief and staff described mutual-aid procedures and reimbursement. Chief Mails said the mutual-aid system prioritizes local coverage while furnishing resources to larger incidents when needed; agencies are reimbursed for personnel and apparatus costs through state or federal reimbursement systems. "When we send resources, our folks are paid by the incident from the time they leave to the time they come back," Chief Mails said.
Staff also reported on resident-facing information tools. Chief Mails recommended readySBC.org for official incident notifications and highlighted Watch Duty and the PulsePoint Respond app as quick sources for incident information.
Commissioners asked about personnel recruitment and retention and the regional dispatch center. Staff said the regional dispatch building is complete but deployment to the center awaits statewide NextGen 911 system onboarding; staff said they expect the 911 transition to be completed by the end of February with a move to the regional center in April or May, subject to the system's schedule.
The presentation was informational; no formal commission action was taken on the Q4 report at the meeting.
