As of September, the Meeks Bay Fire Protection District has been dissolved and annexed into the North Tahoe Fire Protection District. This will benefit both communities and the taxpayers, but it is tinged with sadness.
Formed in 1961, the MBFPD began as a volunteer fire department when concerned citizens realized that their distance from the then Tahoe City Fire Protection District to the north and the Lake Valley Fire Protection District to the south would significantly delay emergency response. Small, mostly dirt roads coupled with long winters and the fact that Cal Trans often closed Highway 89 to Emerald Bay in winter were a recipe for disaster for a structure or wildland fire, or any medical emergency.
The bulk of homes and cabins in Meeks Bay and Tahoma are second homes. But there was a small group of dedicated locals that raised money for equipment and apparatus, some of whom became firefighters and later firefighter EMTs. In those days, most people worked close to home and households only needed one income, so volunteers were available. Employers were often volunteer firefighters themselves and supported employee responses to incidents.
The fire station served as a hub for a community that had no other government buildings, no town hall or utility district. Ed Miller, a 42-year board member and former volunteer fire lieutenant, said, “the fire station is Meeks Bay. It’s where locals go to ask questions about county services such as snow removal or road maintenance or seek assistance for any number of community issues.”
The mid-1970s saw middle class income instability rise, leading to an increased need for two-earner households. This had a negative effect on volunteerism in general and a devastating effect on volunteer fire departments throughout the U.S. as couples simply did not have time to volunteer.
MBFPD is in El Dorado County. But the distance from the county seat in Placerville is not only long as the crow flies, it also requires driving around Emerald Bay, which is a long trek with summer tourist traffic and a dangerous one in winter. The Cal Trans closure around Christmas completely cuts Meeks Bay Fire Protection District off from its own county fire and emergency medical agencies.
The fire station is Meeks Bay. It’s where locals go to ask questions about county services such as snow removal or road maintenance or seek assistance for any number of community issues.”
~ Ed Miller, a 42-year board member and former volunteer fire lieutenant
For many years, the Meeks Bay fire chief and later an administrative assistant were the only paid staff. In the mid-’80s, MBFPD, like most other districts in the Basin, offered part-time or call pay wages to their volunteers in order to increase participation.
In the late 1980s, the district hired four full-time personnel that were qualified California firefighter EMTs to work rotating 24-hour shifts at the station. This is how many of the local area fire districts operated, and a lot of those had a station or two that only staffed one firefighter on duty at a time. A solo response is not the way to handle most fire and medical emergencies. Fire engines need at minimum one firefighter to operate the pump and one to operate the hose and nozzle, and of course this limits the fire attack until more units arrive.
Upon the retirement of MBFPD Chief John Pang in 2014, the district contracted with NTFPD to provide training, administrative management, and a chief officer.
Pang, who served almost 20 years, recalled his district’s response to the 2007 Angora Fire, which burned 3,100 acres and destroyed over 300 homes and structures in El Dorado County.
“At Meeks Bay, we depended on our neighboring agencies, so we responded all personnel and apparatus immediately to the Angora Fire as if it were our own call,” he said.
NTFPD has a minimum staffing at any of its seven stations of at least two personnel, one of those to be a paramedic. This means that advanced life support can start at the moment of patient contact. It means that fire attack can begin upon arrival at the scene. It means that a patient in a vehicle accident can be stabilized until more resources arrive to extricate them.
Now, NTFPD also provides a paramedic ambulance at the Meeks Bay station, which had no ambulance before the contract. Prior to 2014, the ambulance came from the NTFPD Homewood station, increasing response times.
I hope the reader can gain a sense of the dedication of the men and women who worked at MBFPD and their role in bringing their district into a safer response model. The tradition of rapid, skilled, and caring response fostered by those first MBFPD volunteers will carry on under the banner of NTFPD.
