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NEWS RELEASE
Date: November 14, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Windsor Dodges a Bullet…Again.
Windsor CA – Windsor Fire Protection District officials are
breathing a sigh of relief today, thankful that neither of two
structures fires reported within two minutes of one another
Wednesday evening turned out to be serious.
“There is no doubt we dodged the bullet one more time,” said Fire
Chief Ron Collier. “Each of the fires was detected early. They
happened at the right time of day: The homeowners were home; a
couple of our volunteers were home from work and could respond. Our
neighboring departments were available to help us out. Each fire was
just a few blocks from our Station 1, so we were able to get there
quickly.”
At 5:24 pm, WFPD units were dispatched to a structure fire on Cock
Robin Avenue. At 5:26, they were dispatched to a structure fire on
Sparrow Court. Windsor’s one on-duty engine company and battalion
chief responded to the Cock Robin fire.
That meant that Windsor Fire had to rely on fire engines from Santa
Rosa and Rincon Valley fire departments, along with a Santa Rosa
battalion chief, the Sonoma County fire chief, a volunteer Windsor
battalion chief, and a volunteer-staffed Windsor engine to respond
to the Sparrow Court fire.
Fortunately, the Cock Robin fire turned out to be a candle that had
set fire to a small table. The homeowner had put the candle in the
sink; the Windsor engine company was able to extinguish it quickly.
And the Sparrow Court fire was a chimney fire that was extinguished
before it could spread outside of the chimney.
According to Chief Collier, “If either of these fires had occurred
in the middle of the day, when no one was home to report them and no
one was immediately available to staff a second engine, and/or one
house was on this side of town and one on the other, the outcome
would have been dramatically different.”
Windsor Fire Protection District is a combination paid/volunteer
fire department that serves 30,000 people in a 30 square mile area
with two people on duty each day. “It’s a nightmare situation,” said
Windsor Volunteer Battalion Chief Joe Giordani. “I had two structure
fires requiring resources be sent immediately, and our one and only
engine company to send.”
“How do you decide which home is more important?” he continued.
“That’s a tough call when you know that every minute counts when
someone may be trapped, their property is being severely damaged,
and you know it’s going to be awhile before your neighboring fire
department and/or your volunteers are going to be able to get
there.”
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Contact: Matt Gustafson, Battalion Chief/Fire Marshal
Office: 707/838-1170
FAX: 707/838-1173
E-mail: mgustafson@windsorfpd.com
NOTE: Photographs are copyrighted by Windsor Fire Protection
District and can only be used with permission.
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