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Folsom fire chief outlines temporary redeployments and data fixes to maintain response coverage
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Summary
Fire Chief Jason Solak told the City Council that data gaps and station configuration constraints require temporary redeployments beginning April 21: move the ladder truck back to Station 35 temporarily, reassign engines and medics among Stations 34–39, and pursue Station 37 renovations while building a better CAD-to-RMS data framework for compliance reporting.
Fire Chief Jason Solak told the City Council on April 14 that the Folsom Fire Department will implement a temporary deployment plan next week to maintain service reliability while the city addresses data and facility constraints. Solak said the changes are designed to preserve redundancy and improve response across the city while staff complete renovations at Station 37 and build a more reliable data framework.
Solak, who described standards-of-cover benchmarks used across the fire service, said the department measures compliance against response-time goals such as a 4-minute travel-time objective and commonly uses a 90% performance benchmark. He said the city’s records-management system currently lacks GIS linkages and other inputs needed to compute a fully compliant dataset, which forces some calls to be excluded from compliance analysis. “We’ve identified a problem with our data collection and the framework that doesn’t exist for us to be able to ensure compliance,” Solak said.
Why it matters: The department recorded about 9,527 calls for service in 2023 and 15,036 unit runs, and Solak warned that averages can mask reliability problems. To reduce those risks, he recommended short-term equipment moves and staffing adjustments that take effect April 21 while long-term fixes — data fidelity, policy updates and Station 37 renovations — move forward.
Key changes announced: Solak said the department will temporarily house the ladder truck at Station 35 (where it historically resided) until renovations at Station 37 are complete. To maintain balanced coverage, the department will move an engine from Station 39 to Station 38, reassign the medic from Station 36 to Station 35, and move the medic that currently covers 38 to 39. Solak told the council those moves are intended to equalize coverage for peak-season and concurrent-call risks over the next 6–8 months.
Solak also recommended investing in a data framework and training so CAD timestamps and records-management inputs produce a reliable compliance dataset, and he said staff are working with data specialists to design that system. He signaled an intent to bring semiannual progress reports to council once the framework is built.
Council questions and community concerns: Councilmembers asked about the rationale for prior station placements, how mutual- and auto-aid agreements affect compliance metrics, and whether traffic-signal technologies (such as LightAI-style routing or OptiComm systems) could reduce travel times. Solak said technical innovations should be considered but noted financial constraints could delay deployment. A resident asked about siren use for nonemergency calls; Solak said SAC Regional Fire Communication uses a priority-dispatch algorithm and that the system routinely sends code-2 responses for nonemergent calls while reserving code 3 (lights-and-sirens) when appropriate.
Next steps: Solak said the finance director and city manager tentatively approved a plan to fund Station 37 renovations and that staff will return with progress updates and data reports (Solak suggested roughly six-month intervals). The moves announced April 21 are temporary until Station 37 can host the truck as intended.
