STATION77
By Rich Huntling
17459 Slover Ave, Fontana, CA 92337
L ocated on the corner of Slover and Tamarind
Avenues, Fire Station 77 proudly serves the city
of Fontana and is the home of an ALS-level quint
apparatus, a paramedic squad and a water tender.
The nearly 7000 square-foot station is home daily
to five personnel, though this size of house and
level of staffing was not always the case. In fact, old
Bloomington Station 2 at Jurupa and Cedar—a much
smaller building that still stands—housed E77 for
several years. The new station was completed in 1993.
Massive residential and commercial development in south Fontana
spurred the need for the current station, one that needed to be south
of I-10 and capable of housing a ladder truck company. The original
truck, a 1988 open cab American LaFrance Quint, was moved from
Station 72 to Station 77, replacing an engine. When paramedic
service was added to Fontana a medic squad was placed in service.
The squad was unstaffed in 2002 and the personnel were relocated
to make most units in Fontana staffed with four personnel and ALS.
For a short while the station housed the Battalion 2 chief, until 2009.
The station housed the department’s first tractor drawn aerial, a
2006 American LaFrance 100-foot tiller/quint, until it was moved
to the remodeled Station 71 in 2014 and replaced by a 2002
American LaFrance 75-foot quint that had been housed at Station
78. MS77, a two-person Ford F-450 Rosenbauer squad, was
LABOR REPS: CHRIS WILLIAMS
AND JUSTIN BURTT
JON MCLINN DIVISION CHIEF
BY KYLE HAUDUCOEUR
added to augment truck staffing and reduce wear and tear
on the truck by handling the bulk of EMS runs. WT77, an
1800-gallon KME tactical water tender, is cross-staffed by the
squad personnel (or captain and firefighter for out-of-county
responses) and is included on dispatches for SBCoFD’s Gel
Task Force.
Station 77 has unique target hazards. Home to many large
warehouse type facilities, the district has buildings over one
million square feet and 2,000 feet long. High-rise buildings,
including the eight story, 150-unit Dino Papavero senior
center and Kaiser Medical Center Fontana, are also in its first
due area. Meanwhile, vegetation fires spark up frequently on
the Jurupa Hills.
Finally, 77’s is designated as probationary firefighter
training station. The current three probationary firefighters
will conclude their 12-month probationary period soon and
the next group of probationary firefighters will be filling their
vacancies and calling Station 77, The Black Pearl, their home.
Richard Huntling is a probationary firefighter/paramedic with County
Fire. A graduate of Tower V, he spent the first half of his probation
at Station 36 in Joshua Tree. He is now assigned to Station 77 in
Fontana and lives in Culver City.
Thirteen stations, 12 engine companies, two truck companies and four squads serve Division 1. It is not
the largest geographic area in County Fire, but is home to the greatest number of Local 935 members. The
past few months have seen the men and women of Division 1 deployed across the western United States,
instituting changes to EMS delivery and responding to a wide variety of calls.
New cardiac monitors were placed in service throughout the division. The Zoll X-Series monitor
replaced the older E-Series. The new monitor has enhanced customization of the user interface and
improved blood-pressure technology, all packed into a smaller package. In addition, Division 1 has
at last switched to the ePCR/ImageTrend system. The results have been mixed. Some crews do not
use the device on scene, staying with the tried and true method of pen and paper forms. Others
have adapted to using the device on scene and are completing and posting calls by the time they
go back in quarters.
OES 310 and two other OES Type 1 engines from County Fire were deployed to the Valley Fire in
Lake County last month. Division 1 personnel, along with crews from Divisions 3 and 4, completed
a two-week tour on the fast moving fire. Captains Chris Gorman and Donnie Viloria were deployed
to the Gasquet Complex as a “REM” Rapid Extraction Module. This is the first deployment of the
newly developed program, which is designed to provide rescue to wildland firefighters trapped
in a dangerous situation. Prior to this fire season only Los Angeles County and Sac Metro Fire
Departments had such teams. The program was developed after a survivable fire line injury resulted
in a fatality due to smoke and weather conditions made helico