"Our Mission: We, the El Dorado Hills Fire Department, exist to serve and protect the Community through emergency management."

Message from the Fire Chief

Dear Community Members:

The El Dorado Hills Fire Department understands the severity of California’s drought and is taking strides to conserve water.

As a Fire Department, one of our primary roles is to mitigate fires quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, we must use water in these circumstances. Our fire apparatus have water tanks that are typically filled with 500 gallons of water and are only used during emergency situations. While we are unable to restrict our water usage during emergency situations, we make it our goal to conserve water whenever possible.

While we take pride in keeping our apparatus clean, we have changed our washing routine in order to minimize water usage. A local car wash is able to recycle 75% of the water they use which is why we now have a contract with them to wash our utility vehicles. We continue to wash our larger apparatus onsite but only when they are in dire need.

Training is essential in ensuring that our firefighters are prepared for all situations. Sometimes our training includes the use of water, although it is our goal to conserve water during trainings and only use water when necessary.

Fire hydrant inspections and fire hose testing are done on an annual basis and are essential in ensuring that our equipment functions properly during emergency situations. Training, fire hydrant inspections, and fire hose testing are required to maintain our Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating which in turn helps to keep your homeowners insurance rates low. Even though it is a requirement that we complete these operations, we are committed to doing so as conservatively as possible, recycling as much of the water as we can.

Please help by doing your part to conserve water at home and at your place of work.

Sincerely,

Dave Roberts
Fire Chief

Station 84 Status
Regional Operations Committee Meeting 05/14/15