Tom Fudge : Last week, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors seemed to take a step toward creating an actual county fire department. They voted to consolidate twelve rural fire agencies in the county.
The step was a big deal because San Diego County has suffered through two huge conflagrations in the past five years. The Cedar Fire in 2003 and the Witch and Harris Fires last year. All those blazes consumed thousands of homes, killed more than two dozen people, and they started in the rural back country. San Diego County is the biggest county in the State without a regional fire agency. And experts say lack of coordination and a shortage of resources is one of the things that makes us so vulnerable to huge wild fires
Last week's vote by county supervisors was one step in a process. Eleven fire agencies chose NOT to be part of the consolidation. And our region is still a patchwork of small fire departments with separate management and funding.
Guest :
- Greg Cox , chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors .
