STEPHEN BAXTER
San Jose Mercury News


A new plan to cluster firefighters closer to hot spots in San Jose is set to empty a few lesser-used firehouses as soon as August, city officials said.

In light of tighter city budgets and a push for more efficiency, San Jose Fire leaders plan to begin using dynamic deployment, a term coined by the department. The new system essentially makes firefighters more mobile between stations, and it uses real-time data to help dispatchers spread firefighters more systematically.

If firefighters from several San Jose stations are called to a big fire, for example, a dispatcher will be able to pull up historical call volumes of the short-staffed stations and decide whether to refill them. San Jose dispatchers previously had backfilled stations based on experience and instinct, but the new system adds a new dimension of data and the ability to track firefighters' locations.

Aligned with $12 million in cuts to fire department's budget, the plan would add a dispatcher and clear out firefighters from several stations that receive fewer calls. Those firehouses would be made temporary "posting" stations, and the list includes Fire Station 30 at 454 Auzerais Ave.

Firefighters would stay there for only a few hours or a night with the new system.

Station 30 is in Councilman Sam Liccardo's district, and Liccardo said he had confidence in dynamic deployment and the judgment of the fire department's top brass.

"Firefighters save lives, stations don't. So the focus is on the people, not on the buildings," Liccardo said. "What we need is a response approach that ensures that firefighters can get to the scene as quickly as possible."

The other stations slated to be used only temporarily are in Santa Teresa, Communications Hill, near N. King Avenue and McKee Road, and near Seventh Street south of Interstate 280.

Acting San Jose deputy fire director Geoff Cady, the architect of the dynamic deployment, said residents near Station 30 on Auzerais would have slower service. However, the area is well covered by other stations.

"We have enough engine companies surrounding Engine 30 that we can still be at your location within eight minutes 80 percent of the time, which is our city objective," Cady said.

City leaders discussed closing Station 30 entirely in 2009 to the dismay of many residents, so some city officials said this would be a better alternative.

Roughly 80 percent of the fire department's calls are for medical help, not fires. Its eight-minute response-time goal is achieved roughly 82 percent of the time, according to the department.

The city spent $500,000 on the new dispatch software, and Cady said he is fully committed to it.

"I am willing to stake my career on the notion that we will get at least as much value as we have invested in the technology," Cady said.

In June, Cady visited the Nashville, Tenn., fire department to see the new software in action. He planned to visit fire departments in Alameda County and San Diego this summer. The system is known as Live MUM, or the Live Move-Up Model.

The system would force a cultural shift for the department, its leaders said, because firefighter companies would be seen as mobile assets spread across several stations.

The changes come at a critical time.

A new fire chief is set to start in August, and attempts to reduce San Jose firefighters' retirement and benefits have been stalled at the bargaining table. Barring an unlikely new agreement this summer on firefighters' benefits, the city is set to eliminate the equivalent of 81 full-time positions from the department.

Fewer firefighters means slower response times, Cady said, but the new dispatch system is likely to compensate for it.

Firehouse 30 opened in the 1990s as a temporary station during the construction of Fire Station 1 at 225 N. Market St. It was kept open to improve response times during large emergencies, especially downtown and in Willow Glen.

Closing Station 30 on Auzerais is also likely to raise call volumes at surrounding stations such as Station 6 in Willow Glen and Station 7 near Bellarmine College Preparatory, according to fire department documents.

Engine Company 35 in Santa Teresa is the only South San Jose station set to be used for posting, and no systematic firefighter reductions are on tap for the Almaden Valley or Cambrian areas.

Contact Stephen Baxter at sbaxter@community-newspapers.com .

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July 8, 2010