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A letter to the editor from Kate Springmeyer in Bonny Doon
EDITOR, I take exception to the letter by retired fire Capt. Ken Gilbert minimizing the failure of County Fire to dispatch Bonny Doon Volunteer Fire Co. 32 to the Martin Fire. Fortunately, there were many experienced volunteer firefighters that day monitoring their pagers and sky who responded to the smoke column and their fellow volunteer firefighter on the radio reporting conditions. It is because of the skills, tenacity and courage of those volunteers that the dispatch failure was kept from becoming a huge tragedy and that several homes were saved in the beginning of the fire. No one should minimize the dispatch mistake that day, or the subsequent “oversights” in the following days. The original intentions of applying for a fire district in Bonny Doon has been to improve services to our area through direct dispatch, full-time staffing and increasing the level of service in surrounding areas through mutual aid agreements. Putting a Cal Fire engine in Bonny Doon had been discussed and decided against because it would negatively impact other communities — including our own — by having staff that could be easily reassigned during fire season to other parts of the state and that could be nonexistent in the winter months. This fire, to one degree or another, happened to all of us. As with any good community, politics were put aside and everyone did what they could for the benefit of their neighbors and mountain. An independent fire protection district is a natural step in supporting the best resource already in our community — the courageous and dedicated volunteer firefighters who live in it and respond 24/7. Thank you, firefighters!
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The Bonny Doon Volunteers are great people and a great organization. The volunteers are a good basis for forming a local Fire District. I am glad so many people support it. The LAFCO commission can overrule the Director and his staff report. It is the right thing to do. Hats off to the locals who have worked so hard to make this happen. I predict that the LAFCO commission will allow it, or else the matter will be decided in court.