Page 46 - Sonoma County Gazette - June 2018

KNOW THE LAW - BE FIRE SMART
100 feet of Defensible Space is required under the Public Resources Code (PRC) 4291. California Building Code Chapter 7A requires certain construction materials and methods for homes in wildland areas. Be sure to contact your local fire department for additional requirements to ensure your home is compliant with the law. READYFORWILDFIRE.ORG.THE LAW
Bodega Fire: Thank you all for attending another successful Pancake Breakfast fundraiser last month. We continue to maintain a strong group of Volunteer Firefighters but cannot stop looking for more. We recently had two volunteers complete the Volunteer Academy. Congratulations to Sophie Martin and Andrew Good. Wesley Albini completed the SRJC Firefighter 1 Academy, all have dedicated many hours and we congratulate them for all their hard work. We also had a long time Volunteer Christophe Zbinden take a job in Maine and leave us, this was a sad day but we wish him well.
Our 40th annual Graton Firefighters Association Pancake Breakfast was a huge success because of you, the community! Thank you to everyone that used the shuttle to alleviate parking at the fire station. We served over 1,500 plates of pancakes, eggs, and sausage along with gallons of Roasters coffee, orange juice, Manzana apple juice, and milk. Everyone enjoyed tours of the REACH and Sheriff helicopters, fire engines, Sheriff’s SWAT armored vehicle, bomb squad truck, search and rescue dogs, and incident command unit, CHP patrol car, and Sonoma Life Support Ambulance teaching hands-only CPR! Soon, everyone that won a raffle prize will be notified. A huge thank you goes to the local businesses in and around our community for donating over 200 raffle prizes to help support our fundraising cause. Thank you to all the family and friends who came and donated their time to help work at the breakfast.
Here at Bodega Fire we have been fortunate to be on the receiving ends
of multiple grants over the years. Without grant opportunities we would be nowhere near where we are today in regards to updated equipment. We feel that the different granting groups truly understand the needs of our department and recognize that we have a good group of hardworking volunteers.
The funds raised at the breakfast will go to support the firefighters, the fire station, and equipment used by our department. Being that we are an all- volunteer fire department, we try to create an inviting atmosphere at the fire house so volunteer firefighters are encouraged to hang out; thus improving our response times to the 750+ medical aids, vehicle crashes, and fires in
This year we added 4 more awarded grants to our list.
our community each year. Thank you again for your continued support and devotion in our endeavor of providing protection to life and property in our community... we couldn’t do it without you!
1. The largest and most influential grant we received this year is from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant through FEMA. We will be replacing our 26 year old Water Tender (8792) with a brand new International Water Tender. The grant amount was $260,000 and we must come up with $13,000 to provide a 5% cost match. We have ordered the new piece of equipment from the same builder that we bought our other 2 new Engines from, Rosenbauer America out of South Dakota. We expect to drive home the new Water Tender in Late July 2018
New Graton Firefighters
2. We received $1500 from Cal Fire grant program to update wild land tools on our apparatus.
• Firefighter Matt Miller
• Firefighter Thomas Paine
• Firefighter Matthew Skinner • Firefighter Levi DeCarly
• Firefighter Tyler Nielsen
• Firefighter Jacob Mual
3. We received $3000 from the Sebastopol Rotary to outfit our new Water Tender with new equipment.
They dedicated over 100 hours to complete our academy. Huge thanks
to Engineer Kyler Walker, Assistant Chief Robert Sabrowsky, and all our firefighters who volunteered their time to help with training. Watch for them as they respond to emergencies this summer!
4. We were allocated $10,000 from Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival in return for our involvement with our volunteers to help put on the Annual Festival.
Russian River Fire: The Russian River Fire District is excited to announce the addition of our new wildland engine to our fleet. Engine 5660 was built by Ferrara Fire Apparatus
in Louisiana with most of the funding
We will use this money to outfit our new water tender. We want to thank AFG-FEMA, Cal Fire, Sebastopol Rotary and Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival for their generous grants.
Standing Tall... 6 new firefighters complete Graton Fire Academy
Graton Fire:
A Pancake Breakfast “Thank You!”– 1,500+ Served
Congratulations to our six newest firefighters!
Forestville Fire:
coming from a grant written by one of our firefighters. It replaces a previously retired pick up with an aged skid-mount tank and pump. Crews will be spending the coming weeks mounting equipment and training to ready for the upcoming wildland fire season.
Forestville Firefighters Association Pancake Breakfast
We want to thank all of those who attended our Annual Pancake Breakfast on May 6th. We served nearly 500 breakfasts and we really do appreciate the communities support. Congratulations to all of the Raffle winners!
Fireworks
Just a reminder that ALL fireworks are illegal in Forestville. Thanks for understanding and the results have been no major incidents in recent years.
The next regular meeting of the board of directors will be Wednesday, June 13, 2018 at 6pm at the fire station at 14100 Armstrong Woods Rd. in Guerneville. We hope you’ll consider attending. Visit us online at russianriverfire.org.
46 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 6/18