South Santa Clara County residents concerned as fire response agencies being switched

SAN MARTIN, Calif. (KGO) — Changes are coming for who will respond to emergencies and fires in South Santa Clara County.

On Thursday, residents, fire personnel and county officials packed a town hall in San Martin.

The focus was on a Board of Supervisors vote switching fire response from Cal Fire to the Santa Clara County Fire Department.

James Williams is the county executive with Santa Clara County.

“Currently, the South County District is structurally, fiscally imbalanced meaning that its ongoing revenue is not enough to keep those stations open,” Williams said.

The South County District has three fire stations. It covers areas in San Martin, parts of unincorporated Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

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“This is the way to ensure stability and ensure continued fire protection for our residents,” Williams said.

The union representing South County’s Cal Fire workers said the vote to end the contract with them means more than 30 firefighters may be displaced.

And residents who live in unincorporated South County have their own worries.

John Flaherty lives in unincorporated Gilroy.

“My concern is that while this is happening which I think is fundamentally a good idea, I think LA (fire) has happened since a number of these things were started. I don’t see any discussion about how has the urban rural interface affected what we’re going to do in terms of adequate fire coverage,” Flaherty said.

County executive James Williams and Santa Clara County Fire Chief Suwanna Kerdkaew were on hand to answer questions.

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Chief Kerdkaew said this transition is a privilege to keep services ‘in-house.’ As far as making up the personnel needed, Kerdkaew said only SCCFD and the San Jose Fire Department have local accredited training academies. He also said the relationships between surrounding fire agencies will only continue.

But not everyone felt they left with answers.

“No, I think the meeting was more labor versus management issues and we were- the residents were sort of the spectators,” Flaherty said.

The San Martin Neighborhood Association helped moderate the meeting.

Board President Stephen McHenry said this transition doesn’t only impact residents there.

“The service that they deliver down here is not entirely to South County residents for example, if you were a San Benito resident commuting to San Jose and you have an accident on 101, the fire department here responds to your EMS call,” McHenry said.

The change must be approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission in April. The county didn’t share a timeline for when this change will kick in.