Ya know with the pending budget cuts .... and who knows where they will end up ... it seems to me that these kinds of turf battles need to be resolved quickly and once and for all.  These two depts have been vying over this stuff ever since a former Search & Rescue Lieutenant was elected Sheriff (Carl Sparks).  Its time for this petty BS to be put away for good - the BOS wont tell the Sheriff what to do and their Fire Chief is always conniving to come up with ways to justify his boated department  .. so it is incumbent on Youngblood to lead the way out of this predicament.

The Kern County Sheriff's Search & Rescue, as mentioned, consist of over 200 highly trained volunteers, who pay their way at almost no cost to taxpayers.  They have a long, rich tradition of buying their own supplies and equipment at no cost to taxpayers.  They train on their own time at no cost to taxpayers.  Kern County Sheriff SAR are recognized as the finest in California, if not the West Coast.  The California Office of Emergency Services Warning Center regularly requests them to provide mutual aid outside Kern County.  We are extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding group of volunteers.

Because the Fire Service has done such an outstanding job of fire prevention, nearly 95 percent of their responses are non-fire related, such as medical aid, rescue, hazardous material incidents, public service requests and hazardous conditions.  Most of the fires to which they respond are out on arrival.  Fire Fighters are seeking areas for which they can respond, such as search and rescue incidents.

The Sheriff should retain incident command of search and rescue incidents, while the Fire Departments remain in a support role and provide assistance when requested.

Charles Conner, retired Emergency Services Manager, Kern County Office of Emergency Services

Very interesting article Lois. However, this is certainly nothing new.  I am a retired Kern County Fire Department Deputy Chief.  I am a 32 year veteran of the fire department and this situation has existed as long as I can remember.  Nothing has changed.  I will also add that this is not unique to Kern County and Ventura County,  law enforcement topically does not like to work with fire departments, I am sure that there are exceptions but the situation in Kern County is definitely the rule not the exception.  In the position of Deputy Chief, I was responsible for the fire department air operations.  I was tasked with supervision of the build up of the fire department helicopter.  During our first year of operation we were able to generate enough revenue from State and Federal government fire operations within Kern County to purchase a hoist.  The primary purpose for this addition to the helicopter capabilities was for the rescue and transport of injured fire department personnel.  We of course, also recognized the value of this in rescue of members of the public in remote areas and river rescue.  I contacted the Sheriff's Office and advised them that we would be available to assist them any time.  We offered to train their volunteer  search and rescue personnel in helicopter operations.  We felt at the time, this was about eight years ago, that because of the capabilities of the fire department helicopter, in hoisting victims and transport of multiple rescuers this would be in the best interest of public safety.  Our offer was acknowledged but never was taken advantage of during my tenure.  I understand that the helicopter was finally used to rescue a victim from the river this last year.  I truly don't understand why the  Sheriff's is so adverse to utilizing fire department personnel in assisting in search and rescue but it has been the case for as long as I can remember.  My comments are in no way a criticism of the men and women that volunteer for the sheriff's search and rescue, I have the utmost respect and admiration for those individuals.  My criticism is only for law enforcements reluctance to utilize the best tool for the job and the apparent "turf" protection.

David Ward, retired Deputy Chief, Kern County Fire Department

Mr. Ward and Mr. Conner,

Thanks for sharing your perspectives on this issue.

I know it's not a new issue, but it does seem to have ramped up in recent years. I wondered if it was because of the addition of new equipment, such as the hoist capabilities of Fire's aircraft.

I did talk to some Fire/Sheriff's personnel in LA County who said they actually get along quite well, now, on search and rescue operations. But they had to draw physical boundaries for each side and time boundaries (such as Fire can respond inside Sheriff boundaries at night and on weekends).

I'm not saying we should do that here. It was just interesting.

spoken like atrue former Kern County Fire dispacher!

Why,  I ask should a citizen/victim wait for sheriff's Search & Rescue to respond when there are qualified trained personell on scene first to help mitigate these incidents??? So some volunteer group can justify themselves and feel good about themselves? Should this not  first and foremost be about that victim out there ?  If these two agencies are on scene at the same time shouldn't they have a unified approach to these incidents ?  You say there is an agreement who  gets called first when these incidents occur however I guess it depends on who the dispatcher wishes to dispatch or ignore  or gets the call. There are jurisdictions however these are sometimes ignored for certin agencies.   Who's jursidiction is it within the Bakersfield City Limits or is it a first come first serve situation? Once again who are in this for ?  The Victim or Ourselves as agecies?   Who is going to loose