City seeks costs of joining county ambulance service
City officials and leaders of the county’s Emergency Medical Services authority are exploring the possibility of adding Alameda to the county’s ambulance service contract.
A just-released addition to the county’s request for proposals for its upcoming ambulance contract includes a clause requiring whatever private transport company is selected to include other cities in “Zone 1″ in [...]
City plans more fire service reductions
Firefighters are burning mad about proposed overtime cuts that could leave the department staffed with as few as 21 firefighters per shift as of July 1 and force it to “brown out” another truck, this one at its Park Street station.
They’re saying the cuts will further jeopardize residents’ safety and that they are a direct [...]
UPDATED: FIREFIGHTERS TURN IN BALLOT SIGS
Updated 2:40 p.m. Thursday, May 14
Alameda’s firefighters turned in more than 9,000 petition signatures this morning in their bid to qualify a minimum staffing measure for the November ballot.
“We feel this is our only real option. We feel this is a safe level of staffing,” firefighters union rep Jeff DelBono said.
The measure only needs 6,600 [...]
UPDATED Consultant recommends fire restructure
City officials on Wednesday released a consultant’s report recommending an overhaul of the city’s fire department that would change the department’s focus and the very notion of what it means to be a firefighter.
The 81-page report, written by the Washington, D.C.-based ICMA Consulting Services, suggests the department focus its efforts on preventing fires and accidents [...]
UPDATED Facing loss of ambulance service, city could consider new tax
Updated 11:48 a.m. Thursday, April 2
Alameda’s ambulance service could be headed for decertification over an unpaid $1.8 million in bills to the county emergency medical services authority, firefighters said today, though both Alameda’s fire chief and the head of the county EMS authority said they are eager to avoid that outcome.
Fire Chief David Kapler said [...]
CITY AMBULANCE SERVICE HEADED FOR DECERTIFICATION; EMS TAX COULD HIT BALLOT
Alameda’s ambulance service could be headed for decertification over an unpaid $1.8 million in bills to the county emergency medical services authority, firefighters said today. It’s a move that could spell the end of Alameda’s local ambulance service.
But Fire Chief David Kapler said the city is trying to fix the problem and could put a [...]
Fire brownouts moving to Alameda Point
Looks like the fire department will no longer be “browning out” its ambulance on Bay Farm Island or its West End truck when the department is short staffed. As of April 1, they’ll instead brown out the Advanced Life Support (ALS) fire engine on Alameda Point.
Fire Chief David Kapler confirmed the change, saying he thinks [...]
About those brownouts …
Alameda’s firefighters have been pretty vocal with their concerns about the fire company brownouts that began in January 26. Now, Fire Chief David Kapler wants to give the public his side. Kapler is slated to talk to Bay Farm residents and business owners about the brownouts from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24 [...]
Radio, radio
One small but interesting item on the city council’s agenda for Tuesday night: Alameda’s firefighters are among a group of seven Alameda County fire agencies set to get a federal grant to help pay for radios that will allow the departments to talk to each other during emergencies.
The departments will get an $829,597 federal grant [...]
Union offers brownout update
Updated at 2:23 p.m.
Before we get to far away from Tuesday/Wednesday’s council meeting, let me tell you about the presentation the head of the local firefighters union, Domenick Weaver, gave on the fire company brownouts that began on January 26.
Weaver told the council that brownouts of either a truck company at the city’s West End [...]
Fire fees finalized
Fire Chief David Kapler is back, at the City Council’s request, with version 2.1 of a plan to charge residents and building owners for making certain non-emergency calls.
In this latest and quite possibly final version of the plan, people who call about stuck elevators, flooded basements, getting locked out of their (empty of small children) [...]
