I had another meeting with a Southern Californian Fire Department with regard to a proposed attachment program. I met with Battalion Chief Gary Sumich and Assistant Chief Windsor. They were interested but like most departments in California are under extreme budget pressure.
They are a small department with 7 stations but with plans to expand to 10 with future building delopments. The population is around 200 000 but this is fairly flexible and they doing around 15 000 calls of which about 75% are medical related.
We discussed how the program would work then Gary took me to their Number 1 Station and Number 7 Station.
Number 1 Station ran an Engine, Tiller Ladder and USAR Heavy Rescue. It was also a multicultural station with an Australian, German and South African firefighters.
Number 7 Station was a double station shared with the Ventura County Fire Department. It was 2 stations mirrored with a wall in the middle. Both departments get on well and mutual aise each other. Oxnard ran an Engine and Hazmat Vehicle and had a spare Tiller Ladder stored here.
Jenny and the kids ended up at the local library where the kids got their fix on Facebook and MSN.
A couple of destinations today – Hollywood and Oxnard Fire Department. We had to put our Oxnard visit back a couple of hours because it took 1.75 hours to get from Orange to Hollywood. The kids got to experience the LA Freeways at its worst.
We finally got to Hollywood and it didnt let us down – there were people everywhere and also plenty of very ordinary people dressed up to be movie stars and cartoon characters. If you want to see the real things it is better to look towards Universal Studios and Disneyland where they look real and don’t ask for cash for a photo.
Of course the most popular star on the Hollywood Boulevard is Michael Jackson and it is easy to find with the biggest crowd around it.
Spent about an hour on the Boulevard with photos towards the Hollywood sign, then headed out to Oxnard Fire Department (this will be another entry).
After visiting Oxnard we took the Coast Highway home stopping off at a Missile Park next to the Port Hueneme Naval Base. We continued down the coast and had tea at Paradise Cove Cafe on the beach at Malibu.
We only ordered appetizers and needless to say we finished them off for tea the following night as well – they were huge (check out the photos).
It was a quick pass of the Santa Monica Pier all lit up and back to the hotel with a tired couple of critters on board. Tomorrow we head to San Diego.
Caches for the day:
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