On Wednesday morning, a Scotts Valley Fire District crew headed out on a medical call. Inside the Erba Lane station, which was missing some of its exterior façade, as firefighters carry out a repair project to fix winter storm damage, the new fire chief sat in front of a whiteboard hinting at plans for how to get a brand-new station—introduce a new tax.
Mark Correira comes to SVFD from Snoqualmie, Wash., where he was also chief of a fire agency. He grew up in Oxford, Mass., and recalls being enlisted by a fire crew to help put out a grass fire. He got the firefighting bug that day, and then, when he turned 18, he enlisted in a service in his home state.
Over more than three decades working in the industry, Correira said he’s never seen a situation where firefighters do as much maintenance and construction as in Scotts Valley.
“One of the most concerning things to me was to learn that this building was unsafe for firefighters to work in,” he said. “The building has reached the end of its useful life.”
This is not a secret. Multiple studies have pointed to sub-standard aspects of the facility, including sleeping quarters with no windows and only one exit point.
“They’re basically closets is what they are,” said Chris Stubendorff, a battalion chief who’s been with SVFD for 23 years, noting this actually goes against what they advise the public. “We always teach our kids there should be two ways out.”
Their workout equipment occupies a bay where a firetruck should probably go. And the location can’t even accommodate a ladder truck, which will be of increasing significance as Scotts Valley rolls out the ambitious housing plan it’s developing.
That being said, Stubendorff admits he’ll be sad to shutter the facility.
“I grew up next to this station, and I live up the road,” he said. “It’s always been part of my backyard.”
But he says there are just too many things wrong with it.
So even though the site previously set aside for a new station, near the Scotts Valley Hilton hotel, is further away from his home—and from his parents’ place, too—he knows it’s a more optimum spot for responding to the bulk of local incidents.
SVFD responded to around 2,200 calls in 2023. This year, it’s handled 15% more than it had by last July. And the nature of incidents are changing, too.
Correira said that while structure fires are still a frequent occurrence back East—due to the wood used in older buildings that make up the housing stock out there—here on the West Coast, firefighters are increasingly called to serve as healthcare professionals.
And when buildings do burn, the materials tend to emit seriously hazardous gasses. Which brings up another major flaw in the 1960s-ear Erba Lane station.
“Dirty firefighting gear causes cancer,” said Correira, explaining that up-to-code stations are designed to prevent clean equipment from being contaminated.
Stubendorff attested to the unsafe vapors they frequently encounter on-the-job.
“With modern firefighting, you’re dealing with different materials that are burning,” he said. “Firefighters are getting cancers that they never really had before.”
There should be specific areas where uniforms and other items can be cleaned of hazardous chemicals and blood, said Correira.
“A new fire station would provide for the separation of these things,” he said. “It’s about safety.”
It would take at least $5 million just to do a seismic retrofit—without addressing any of the other factors, according to Stubendorff, who points out that just because the station survived the 1989 earthquake, that doesn’t mean it would be standing after another.
Back in 2006, the fire department tried to get a tax passed, but failed. A subsequent levy attempt failed, too.
“The cost to build the fire station now is eight times what it would have been back then,” Correira said.
SVFD wants to raise $22.2 million through bonds by collecting $27.50 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
For the average Santa Cruz County homeowner, this would be $218 annually.
“We’re not adding a third fire station, we’re relocating the Erba Lane fire station,” he said. “We recognize there’s never a good time to ask the public for taxes, but every year we wait, the cost keeps increasing.”
Stubendorff said fire agencies face numerous funding challenges. For one, starting in 1992, money that used to flow to fire districts began to be directed to school districts.
Prop 172 was meant to create a pot of money to assist public safety agencies, but 99.6% of these dollars go to sheriffs and district attorneys, added Stubendorff.
Meanwhile, firefighters are becoming a multi-disciplinary force, taking on everything from forest fires, to hazardous waste cleanups, to education.
“That’s why we’re trying to build up our prevention department,” Stubendorff said, explaining this includes teaching homeowners how to turn their property into a defensible space. “It’s not just going to kids’ schools.”
Essentially, the fire service is in the business of dealing with emergencies and reducing threats before they become a problem. One of the most obvious places to start is with their own home base, Stubendorff said.
“We’re always used to taking risks, that’s just part of our job,” he said. “Where we see risk, we take measures to mitigate that. We’re kind of looking at the station the same way.”
SVFD will host an open house on Aug. 1 at the station, at 7 Erba Lane, as part of the National Night Out initiative. It will also meet with service clubs in the coming weeks to pitch the tax. Groups seeking a presentation are asked to contact the fire district.
