JUST THE FACTS

1921 - Ripon Fire Department formed and covered one square mile.
1945 - City of Ripon incorporated and decided Ripon Fire Department would not be part of City.
1963 - Ripon Fire Department and Ripon Rural Fire CONSOLIDATED to form the RCFD.
RCFD now covers a fifty-six (56) square mile area.
RCFD does not receive any funding from the City of Ripon for EMS or Fire Suppression Services.

RCFD covers fifty-six (56) square miles.
North to Lone Tree Road, East to Carrolton Avenue, West to Brown Road, and South to the Stanislaus River, including water rescue responses.

Fire Suppression, Emergency Medical Services/Ambulance Services, Hazardous Materials Response, Water Rescue, Public/Lift Assists, Fire Prevention Inspections, and Public Education/Training.

Note: All RCFD Firefighters are Emergency Medical Services Certified as an EMT or Paramedic

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends a minimum of 15 firefighters on-scene.
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) REQUIRES a minimum of 2 firefighters to remain outside a structure fire before any firefighters can enter the burning building.
RCFD currently does NOT have enough personnel on duty on any given day to meet this requirement.
RCFD must wait for another agency to arrive BEFORE they can enter the burning building.

The American Heart Association recommends at least four-six (4-6) personnel respond to a 911 call for a Cardiac Arrest.
RCFD currently only has five (5) personnel on duty every day, at any given time.

When RCFD personnel are already on-scene responding to a call in progress and another call, or multiple additional calls, continue to come in for service. RCFD is then in need of Mutual Aid to respond from an outside agency.

Fire Agencies from outside of Ripon Consolidated Fire District area assist via Mutual Aid.
RCFD reciprocates Mutual Aid to these same agencies.
Response time for outside agencies can be significantly delayed due to their own call volume, their
own staffing issues, traffic congestion, road conditions (accidents), etc. There can also be severe delays during commute time or accidents, as well as road work at any time.
Agencies typically dispatched for Mutual Aid to RCFD: Manteca, Escalon, Lathrop, and Salida. Also, Modesto and Tracy can be dispatched for Mutual Aid if other agencies are unavailable.

RCFD ranks 15th out of 19 (5th lowest) San Joaquin County Fire Agencies for its portion of property tax allocation.
The Special Tax (parcel tax) passed in 1986 has not increased over the last forty (40) years as it was NOT indexed for inflation.
Revenue from property tax and the 1986 Special Tax is not enough to staff another Fire Engine. The 1986 Special tax that does not increase with inflation has severely impacted a shortfall of revenue over the past 40 years.

Two Engines would allow more timely response to the increasing number of calls, as well as concurrent calls for service.
Two engines (one at Station 1 and one at Station 3) would help to improve our current call response times by providing a response from Station 3 on the north side of the District.
Two engines would allow RCFD to respond to concurrent calls within RCFD area and help decrease the need for Mutual Aid.
Two engines would assist with RCFD’s increasing demand due to current growth, as well as anticipated growth in the years to come.

Response times to emergencies will continue to increase.
Calls for service will continue to outpace available resources, causing RCFD to rely on mutual aid for our community needs with even longer waiting time for response.
May have a potentially negative effect on outcomes for fires, as well as patient wellbeing.
Station 3 will remain unstaffed and closed
Engine 2-2 will remain unstaffed.