Page 45 - Sonoma County Gazette June 2019

Russian River Fire Protection District:
Bodega Volunteer Fire Department:
The Russian River Fire District Board of Directors has approved a contract with the Sonoma County Fire District to provide executive administrative services for the district. While there will be no immediate operational changes in our current delivery of services, the executive leadership and other administrative services provided by Sonoma County Fire District will help reduce administrative redundancies and will allow us to explore opportunities to enhance our service delivery model.
Congratulations to Bodega Volunteers (Steve, Wesley, Eric, Christoph) for winning the Wooden Boat Competition at the 46th Annual Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival. Thank you to our Sponsor Northern Light Surf Shop.
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
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!
Due to the unfortunate late-season rains, our annual Firefighter’s Association BBQ that was scheduled for May 18th was cancelled. Although the annual Stumptown Parade has been rescheduled for June 15th, there are no current plans to reschedule the BBQ. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued support. We hope to see you next year!
The next regular meeting of the Board of Directors will be on June 12th at 6pm at the fire station. We hope you’ll consider attending.russianriverfire.org.
Forestville Fire Protection District
The Forestville Fire Department and the Forestville Fire Association would like to extend a big warm THANK YOU to everyone who came out and supported our annual Pancake Breakfast on May 5th. We had record attendance and raised funds that will allow us to buy needed equipment to support our Firefighters in their protection of the Community.
Please mark your calendars and come out and support the Forestville Youth Park at their annual Barbeque June 1st and 2nd. It’s a fun event for the whole family with carnival rides, great music, great food and local vendors.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, we would like to remind everyone about river safety. The early bout of hot weather last month brought more people to the river. Luckily our highly trained Swift Water Teams were available to assist with river rescues, that could have easily proved fatal in all circumstances to both adults and children.
Congratulations to Bodega Volunteer Sophie Martin for completing the FF1 academy at Santa Rosa Junior College.
The river has extremely strong currents and everyone should wear a life jacket. We urge you to constantly watch your children and do not let them go in the river without a life jacket, even the strongest swimmers get swept away by the currents and have needed rescue.
We have received some grant funding for highway signage in the town of Bodega. You will see a new signboard going up in front of the station soon and 1 sign on each end of town Identifying the town of Bodega.
Graton Fire:
A Pancake Breakfast “Thank You!” – 1,500+ Served
We also recently received Sonoma County TOT grant funding to implement a Drone Program into our department. We have obtained a DJI rescue drone that has a dual camera system for photos/videos and Thermal Imaging. This piece of equipment will allow us increased rescue capabilities. With the use of the drone we will be able to get faster visualization on missing people or falls from the bluffs of the Sonoma Coast when a helicopter is unavailable. This also will allow us to visualize vehicles stuck in flood waters to determine if they are occupied prior to deploying rescuers in to the water. The drone also will allow us to find access points and roads to fires in remote areas. The drone has a spotlight, speaker system and night vision via Thermal Imaging. This tool doesn’t replace our current operations but enhances safety factors and could speed up deployment of resources. We are currently training a couple of our volunteer fire captains (Josh Perucchi and Boone Vale) to get their commercial drone pilots license from the FAA and complete the night operations course.
Our 41st 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
Bodega Bay Fire District
BBFPD is proud to announce the addition of Kayla Neel-Grant as our newest Firefighter/Paramedic. Kayla was hired using funds provided by the SoCo Board of Supervisors.
Come to our July 6th
pancake breakfast! Starts @ 7:30 am at the Bodega Bay Grange , 1370 Bodega Ave, Bodega Bay. 7:30 – 11:30 am INFO: www.bbfpd.org -
Deputy Chief Scott Fisher flips pancakes for 1,500 attendees at the Graton
Fire Pancake Breakfast
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.
ALL SoCo Fire Departments are WELCOME
to JOIN this Column. EM: vesta@sonic.net
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