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.