Upgrades almost complete at Twentynine Palms fire station
A $130,000 remodel of the Twentynine Palms fire station is under way.
The building is getting a major makeover with improvements to bring the station up to date. Recently the city switched from having an independent fire department to contracting with the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Elected officials said this change will bring added benefits.
“On each engine there is a paramedic now, so people get advanced life support on every engine that shows up,” said Daniel Mintz Sr., the mayor of Twentynine Palms. “They also have the support of the whole county, up and down, from Mornogo Valley to Yucca Valley so they have more personnel to draw from.”
Property owners are paying an extra $60 a year to pay for the San Bernardino County Fire Department contract. The high desert has had their fair share of destructive and deadly wild fires in the past. People know how to prepare for the worst.
Wildfires burn thousands of acres in California
“I cleared the brush away from my home, I am on 20 acres but there is a lot of sparse growth out there, between that I have hoses set up on every side of the house and that’s the best I can do,” said Michelle Perfili of Twentynine Palms.
With the Twentynine Palms fire station falling under the county fire department umbrella, firefighters will have a lot more easily available tools at their disposal.
“We have a wild land division where we have hand crews, dozers, helicopters and those are all resources we can put on a large wild land incident,” said Battalion Chief Scott Tuttle with SBCFD.
Firefighters will be moving into their freshly remodeled station in a few weeks. The Twentynine Palms firefighters that switched to work for the county are keeping their jobs in the city. After a year they will have the option to transfer other stations in San Bernardino County.
