In the last five years, the number of emergency calls recorded by the Guadalupe Fire Department has increased 150 percent, but the largely volunteer department had added no staff.

Then, as the city of fewer than 7,000 people wrestled with budget shortfalls in June 2007, the volunteer firefighters came to the City Council and said they desperately needed a third paid captain so that every 24-hour shift in the week could be covered by at least one paid person.

They felt so strongly about it that they even offered to give up some of the money they were paid for each call they responded to.

Guadalupe has just 17 members in its fire department to protect it against fires, disasters and medical emergencies, and the town is poised for more growth as plans for more than 900 new homes, as part of a development called DJ Farms, move forward.

To make matters worse, one of the department's two captains left for the Santa Maria City Fire Department earlier this year.

Despite any staffing limitations, the department has strong support from the community, and after negotiations with the City Council, a third fire captain's position was created to provide 24-hour coverage, then both it and the vacant captain's position were filled.

To handle the added cost of a third full-time captain, the city shifted the volunteers from being paid per call to being paid a monthly stipend, in addition to cutting back on other expenditures.

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Now the department has a staff of 17 with a budget of roughly $482,000 for this fiscal year, including the chief, three captains and a firefighter/permit technician as full-time employees. The remaining staff are volunteers, about half of whom have “day jobs” outside of Guadalupe. The volunteers are then responsible for after-hours emergency calls.

“It is important that this town has a fire department that can respond quickly to emergencies,” said Guadalupe City Councilman Ariston Julian. “I was born and raised in Guadalupe and I believe we have the finest crew of volunteer and paid staff, but we need to increase the amount of folks on the fire crew to respond to calls.”

Julian added that the City Council is doing everything it can to support the fire department. The council eventually wants to create a full-time fire department.

“I am a big supporter of public safety and I helped to get Chevron to pay for the first two captain positions,” said Guadalupe Mayor Lupe Alvarez, in reference to a deal between the city and the oil company to offset any impacts from Chevron transporting oil-contaminated soil from the Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes cleanup site through Guadalupe to the Santa Maria Regional Landfill.

The mayor and others have also negotiated a deal with the developers of DJ Farms to build a police and fire station in the development near the intersection of Highway 166 and Highway 1, where more than 900 homes are set to be built after final plans are approved by the City Council.

“Especially with the DJ Farms development, it will be hard to keep the level of service if we don't hire more people,” said volunteer firefighter Patrick Schmitz.

Volunteer Firefighter Association President Austin Lara said that it required overall cooperation with the City Council to get the third captain position approved.

“It's going to take everybody in the community to move the direction we need for adequately supporting emergency responses,” Lara said.

Filling the vacant captain's position is Richard Galindo, 24, of Santa Maria. Galindo worked for the Forest Service and was a volunteer with Guadalupe Fire Department. He attended Santa Maria High School and said he considers it “a blessing that I could get a job in a field I am this passionate about.”

The third captain hired to fill the new position is Jesse Gauna, who had been a volunteer firefighter with Guadalupe for five years.

Gauna, 31, grew up in the Santa Maria and Orcutt area. While going to school full-time, working a full-time and a part-time job and raising his son, Gauna completed his EMT license and Firefighter I certificate in 2003. That was the same year he was hired as a volunteer firefighter in Guadalupe.

“I started my career here in Guad, and I would like to end it here as well,” Gauna said. “I couldn't ask for a better job with people and personnel who are 110 percent motivated and enthusiastic.”

Both the new captains want the fire department to grow into a full-time position for everyone. Along with Fire Chief Carmon Johnson, they have put in numerous applications for grants and federal funding.

“We are fortunate that in this time of economic struggle that we are able to have three full-time captains,” Johnson said.

“In the coming years, we want an increase in positions, but that remains to be seen. We'll see how the DJ Farms development goes, and assess our situation from there,” Johnson said.

Gauna understands that his new position is important not only to the firefighters but for the community as well. He has taken over responsibility for EMS records and documents, as well as becoming the training coordinator.

“We're working on quality control and making sure our department is organized and well educated,” Gauna said.

Gauna is one class away from becoming a certified fire officer, which will allow him to do training for the firefighters at the station instead of sending them elsewhere.

“Hopefully, what I bring to the table is my motivation to learn and impress upon the other guys to do the same thing,” Gauna said.

Alice Saucedo of Guadalupe has been a volunteer firefighter for almost four years. She is the only full-time paid firefighter on staff and is the building permit technician as well.

“Having Jesse here as captain has been a great thing. We can have 24-hour coverage now, and he really brings his previous experience and education to the job,” Saucedo said. “We can keep moving forward and become more streamlined as a team. We are much more organized.”

Raiza Canelon can be reached at 739-2216 or rcanelon@santamariatimes.com.

July 23, 2008