Officials from three fire agencies surrounding Santa Rosa who envision becoming a single firefighting agency were among scores of fire officials who met Saturday to hammer out a vision for improving Sonoma County’s complex and uneven firefighting delivery service.
There is a fall deadline from Sonoma County supervisors to come up with a long-range plan streamlining the county’s nearly 40 fire agencies.
Saturday marked a high point in cooperation and planning for the historically fractured fire services community as more than 75 fire officials worked in regional groups to tackle the thorny questions of filling gaps in coverage, lengthy response times in some rural areas, relocating fire stations, replacing aging engines, sharing volunteers and equipment, and calculating how much new staffing is needed.