The Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD) provides fire protection and emergency response services for the unincorporated areas of

Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxn ...

, and for seven other cities within the county. Together, these areas compose the Ventura County Fire Protection District in the state of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, USA. The Ventura County

Board of Supervisors A board of supervisors is a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as 16 counties in New York. There are equivalent agen ...

is the fire district's board of directors. These five elected supervisors appoint the

fire chief A fire chief or fire commissioner is a top executive rank or commanding officer in a fire department. Nomenclature Various official English-language titles for a fire chief include ''fire chief'', ''chief fire officer'' and ''fire commissioner' ...

, and task him with providing fire protection services for the district. In addition to the

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

s of Ventura County, the department currently provides the following cities with service:

Camarillo Camarillo ( ) is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 70,741, an increase of 5,540 from the 65,201 counted in the 2010 Census. Camarillo is named for brothers Juan an ...

Moorpark Moorpark is a city in Ventura County in Southern California. Moorpark was founded in 1900. The town grew from just over 4,000 citizens in 1980 to over 25,000 by 1990. As of 2006, Moorpark was one of the fastest-growing cities in Ventura County.. ...

Ojai Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

Port Hueneme Port Hueneme ( ; Chumash: ''Wene Me'') is a small beach city in Ventura County, California, surrounded by the city of Oxnard and the Santa Barbara Channel. Both the Port of Hueneme and Naval Base Ventura County lie within the city limits. P ...

Santa Paula Santa Paula ( Spanish for " St. Paula") is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. Situated amid the orchards of the Santa Clara River Valley, the city advertises itself to tourists as the "Citrus Capital of the World". Santa P ...

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The ...

, and

Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown. It is named after the many oak tree ...

History

On May 11, 1928 the Ventura County Fire Protection District (VCFPD) was established. It wasn't for another two years that a 24-hour Fire Warden was placed on duty. As the population of the county grew, the VCFD grew as well. In 1946 the department added radios to all of their trucks and rose to a total of 34 personnel. Nearly 33 years later in 1969, the department added a second radio frequency and added a full-time

dispatch center A dispatcher is a communications worker who receives and transmits information to coordinate operations of other personnel and vehicles carrying out a service. A number of organizations, including police and fire departments, emergency medical s ...

at Station 31 in

. Four years later in 1973, VCFD changed their engines from traditional

Fire Engine Red Fire engine red is an informal name for an intense, bright red commonly used on emergency vehicles in many countries on fire service vehicles. There is no unique shade, although different fire services may have a required specification. The co ...

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

Apparatus

Engine and medic engine

Ventura County uses two main types of engines. The first is the standard engine, which is often referred to as a "triple-combination pumper" as it has a fire pump, water tank and

fire hose A fire hose (or firehose) is a high-pressure hose that carries water or other fire retardant (such as foam) to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it attaches either to a fire engine, fire hydrant, or a portable fire pump. Indoors, it can perm ...

. Each engine can deliver 1,500 GPM of water and carry 500 gallons of water. The engines also carry multiple ground ladders and different types of hose as well as various types of firefighting, rescue and medical equipment. The second type of engine is the Medic Engine. The only real difference between the medic engine and the standard engine is that the medic engines are capable of

advanced life support Advanced Life Support (ALS) is a set of life saving protocols and skills that extend basic life support to further support the circulation and provide an open airway and adequate ventilation (breathing). Components These include: * Tracheal in ...

(ALS) with a firefighter also being a fully trained Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedic. These units have additional equipment on board for specialized emergency responses.

Medic rescue engine/rescue engine

In the Ventura County Fire Department, a rescue engine is a 2 piece company that is assigned a standard engine and rescue truck. These units always respond together as a single company. The rescue truck carries all of the same equipment that a truck company carries, such as vehicle extrication tools, forcible entry tools and ventilation tools giving the rescue engine truck company capabilities without the aerial device of a truck company. Ventura County Fire Department has 3 rescue engines, 1 rescue is paired with a BLS engine making the company a Rescue Engine (27) and 2 of the rescues are paired with Medic Engines to make them Medic Rescue Engines (23 & 31). Each of the Rescue Engines / Medic Rescue Engines serve as the truck company / support company for their geographical region. These companies are used instead of a large ladder truck with an aerial device because of the type of area they serve, either due to the terrain, making it difficult to operate a large truck company, or a lack of multi-story buildings making an aerial device unnecessary.

Water tenders

Ventura county fire department has 2 water tenders currently in service, they are water tender 40 and water tender 27. These units are used on brush fires when there is no hydrants available for engines to refill there pumps. They are stationed at station 40 and 27. 27 is much newer than 40, with 40 being an old KME, and the most notable feature of 40 is that instead of being yellow, like most of the other units in the department, it is red.

Quints

Ventura county fire department currently has one quint frontline and the one in reserve. What sets these units apart from other truck companies is that they have a pump and carry water. These quints are quints 44 and 144, and are stationed at station 44 in wood ranch. Quint 44 is the one in frontline and is a 2015 rosenbauer commander tractor drawn Quiller (quint+tiller), and the reserve one being quint 144, an American Lafrance rear mount quint, another fun fact is that code3customs made a diecast model of quint 144 when it was rescue engine 40. 144 also served as rescue engine 40, then got the paramedic designation and then was quint 44, and is now in reserve as quint 144. These units respond to calls as if they were and engine and a truck.

In addition to the main engines, Ventura County also has reserve engines which are older engines kept as backups or for use on major incidents. Two of the department reserve engines are provided by the Office of Emergency Services.

Wildland fire engines

Ventura County has 11 Type 3 wildland fire engines that are specifically designed for fighting wildland fires. One feature that sets these engines apart from the standard engines is their ability to pump water from a 500-gallon tank while on the move. This allows firefighters to make a running attack on the fire. This feature is called "pump and roll"

Helicopters

Ventura County has four

Helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

that are jointly used by the VCFD and the

Ventura County Sheriff's Department The Ventura County Sheriff's Office (VCSO), also sometimes known as the Ventura County Sheriff's Department (VCSD), provides law enforcement for the unincorporated areas of Ventura County, California as well as several cities within the county ...

. The fleet of helicopters is made up of four different Bell UH-1 Hueys, one each of the HH-1H,

UH-1H The Bell UH-1 Iroquois military helicopter, first introduced in 1959, is the first production member of the prolific Huey family of helicopters, and was itself developed in over twenty variants, which are listed below. XH-40 and YH-40 The firs ...

, Bell 205B and

Bell 212 The Bell 212 (also known as the ''Twin Two-Twelve'') is a two-blade, medium helicopter that first flew in 1968. Originally manufactured by Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, production was moved to Mirabel, Quebec, Canada ...

. Each Huey can carry up to nine firefighters, can fly up to 100 miles per hour, and features a 375-gallon water tank that can be used to make drops onto fires. In September 2019 Ventura County incorporated three

UH-60 The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System ( ...

helicopters for firefighting use. The surplus helicopters, obtained from the U.S. Army, are referred to as ''Firehawks'' and have been modified for crew transport, patient transport, and to carry water-dropping belly tanks. They provide increased speed (160 miles per hour) and water carrying capacity (1,000 gallons) over the existing fleet. In addition to fire fighting missions, the Hueys and Firehawks are used for

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...

, marijuana eradication and surveillance.

Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Units (ARFF)

The Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting units are designed to fight large flammable liquid fires, specifically aircraft fires. They are also utilized on gasoline fires in refineries or tanker trucks on the highway. The engines carry 1,500 gallons of water and is fitted with a pump capable of 1,250 GPM. Two hundred gallons of foam concentrate is also carried on board.

Dozers

To aid in fighting

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

s, VCFD has multiple

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...

s. The dozers, as they are known, travel as a three piece unit consisting of the dozer itself, a

tractor-trailer A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer a ...

that transports the dozer which callsigns are "transoprt and a tender that carries tools for servicing the dozer in the field.

Fire boat

The VCFD has a 38-foot

fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipme ...

stationed at the

Channel Islands Harbor Channel Islands Harbor is a small craft harbor and shore-protection project in Oxnard, California at the southern end of the Santa Barbara Channel. It is the fifth largest harbor for small-craft recreation in the state of California and is a wat ...

. It is outfitted with a 1,000 GPM water cannon.

Emergency operations

Bolded stations serve as quarters for the various Battalion chiefs in the VCFD. There are 5 Battalions in the department, each commanded by a Battalion Chief. Station 54 is also the headquarters for the departments special operations.

Battalion 1

Headquartered at Station 54, Battalion 1 services the

and Somis areas as well as the department's Special Operations activities. Special operations include dealing with hazardous materials, urban search and rescue, water rescue and specialized fire fighting activities such as shipboard and aircraft emergencies.

Battalion 2

Headquartered at Station 23, Battalion 2 services the

Ojai Valley Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

area as well as Santa Paula, Meiners Oaks, Oak View and Ventura

Battalion 3

Headquartered at Station 30, Battalion 3 services the area of Conejo Valley. Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Oak Park are also covered.

Battalion 4

Headquartered at Station 41, Battalion 4 services the areas of

and

Battalion 5

Headquartered at Station 51, Battalion 5 services the areas of Santa Paula, Fillmore, Oxnard, Piru, Port Hueneme and Malibu.

Organization

VCFD is under the auspices of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, who appoint the Fire Chief. Reporting directly to the Fire Chief, the Deputy Fire Chief oversees the five bureaus within the department: *Emergency Services Bureau *Support Services Bureau *Administrative Services Bureau *Fire Prevention Bureau *Business Services Bureau

Bureau of Emergency Services

This bureau provides

fire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated ...

emergency medical care Emergency medicine is the medical speciality concerned with the care of illness A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediatel ...

hazardous materials Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabi ...

response,

Urban search and rescue Urban search and rescue (abbreviated as USAR or US&R) is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natu ...

, swift water rescue, and the Fire Training Section. Under the command of an assistant chief, the bureau composes all fire stations within the department, as well as the Fire Training and Emergency Medical Services Sections.

References

External links

Ventura County Fire Department Official Website

PulsePoint - Live Incident Descriptions of the Ventura County Fire Dept.

Fire Stations Map and Links

Annual Reports

VCAlert sign up

VCFD Meet Our Team

VCFD Facebook page

VCFD Instagram

VCFD Nextdoor page

VCFD Twitter

VCFD Vimeo page

VCFD Youtube page
{{coord missing, Ventura County, California Fire departments in California Government of Ventura County, California Organizations based in Ventura County, California County government agencies in California