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Sonoma Valley Fire District reports ISO Class 1 rating, full staffing and expansion of capabilities
Summary
Fire Chief Steve Baker told the Sonoma City Council the district finished 2025 fully staffed, retained its ISO Class 1 rating, consolidated with Kenwood Fire District to add paramedic staffing, participated in USAR operations and countywide drone programs, and benefited from Measure H funds to add firefighting capacity.
Fire Chief Steve Baker presented the Sonoma Valley Fire District's 2025 annual report and a 2026 season update to the City Council on June 17, highlighting staffing, regional partnerships and preparedness efforts.
Baker said the district completed another consolidation this year with the Kenwood Fire District, creating a three-person, paramedic-staffed engine company where previously a two-person EMT engine served the area. "We are fully staffed," Baker said, noting the district had hired permanent firefighters and 11 new volunteers. He added that Measure H funding allowed the district to provide a third firefighter paramedic on the city engine company.
The district retained an ISO Class 1 rating following an independent Insurance Services Office evaluation, which Baker said helps homeowners obtain or maintain insurance. He also summarized operational statistics: more than 5,800 emergency responses in 2025, an average response time of less than five minutes, and about 64% of calls were EMS-related.
Baker described operational improvements that bolster response capacity: borderless dispatch (closest resource is sent regardless of jurisdiction), participation in the Oakland USAR Task Force 4 (12 department members trained for technical rescue and mutual-aid deployments), and two drone programs (a district program and a county program providing six strategically located drones). "We now have implemented some operational improvements countywide including borderless dispatch," he said.
On the 2026 fire-season outlook, Baker said fire-season conditions are beginning early, with above-normal temperatures and fast fuel drying expected and an El NiF1o season that could increase onshore winds. He reminded residents about preparedness: defensible space, home hardening and community resources at sonomavalleyfire.org and socoemergency.org. He also noted planned prescribed burns in partnership with CalFire and other agencies, weather permitting.
Council members asked about prescribed burns and the distinction between agricultural-burning policy and prescribed ecological burns; Baker clarified that CalFire had halted agricultural burns but prescribed and training burns continue when conditions are safe and with partner coordination.
Next steps: the district is pursuing capital improvements (station upgrades) and grant applications through FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, continuing recruitment and vegetation-management efforts, and sustaining participation in regional response teams.
