What's Wrong With Mariposa County Fire
Updated: Sep 24
By Stanley Bissmeyer
Since the inception of the United States of America in 1776 government has been tasked with a few responsibilities: 1. Protection against foreign aggression. 2. Protection against criminality, and 3. Protection against fire.
There are many other responsibilities but these are cherished and hallowed institutions and for good reason for without them nothing else matters. We are seeing firsthand what is happening before our eyes when our county fire department is left to fall into neglect and abandonment. Mariposa County Supervisors have apparently forgot this because this is allowed to happen county wide. They have abdicated their responsibility. By Mutual Aid agreement the County Volunteer / Paid Firefighters are solely responsible for protecting our homes in this county. USFS and Cal Fire have mutual aid for sure but if choosing between a vegetation fire and an endangered home they fight the vegetation fire and leave structure protection to county engines. But without the county engines that protection is minimal or NOTHING at best, hence the high cost of fire insurance.
The Mariposa County Board of Supervisors have this responsibility and have ignored the terrible consequences of their misplaced priority. This is not a question of money, it is a question of priority We currently have the money we just need to take stock and make sure county fire is a top priority.
Jerseydale did not lose an engine because the community stopped caring. It lost an engine because the system that staffs rural stations is broken and was allowed to fail — and the Board of Supervisors has treated Firewise pamphlets as a substitute for a fire company.
That is the heart of the problem. The decision to remove the Jerseydale engine was treated as an internal fleet/staffing move under Lushmeadows Company 29 / former Station 229, not as a public vote with findings on ISO, response time, or what happens when the last two volunteers walk.
Those last two volunteers left around 2021- 2022, that lines up with the year Chief Steven Ward told the Board the truth in open session: nine of thirteen stations had people, 31 responders countywide, 16 drivers, 42 percent equipment response the year before, and Greeley Hill, Cathays Valley, and Hunters Valley already had no volunteers. Mt Bullion, Mormon Bar, Hunters Valley and Cathays Valley have been closed. The Fate of Jerseydale is in limbo at this time
The Oak Fire was that same summer. Jerseydale was evacuated. The engine question that was brought to the board was not put on the agenda as a crisis-It was absorbed into “we’ll talk about service levels later.” The can was kicked down the road and now we are worse off for it.
What got worse
Training rose; bodies did not. California State Fire Training rebuilt Firefighter I around NFPA standards in 2014. Title 22 first aid applies to firefighters, including reserve/volunteer members. Locally, anyone who will fight fire or drive is pointed at doing (on their own time and cost) academy, task book, SOG 2.5.5, medical screening, and Live Scan. Driver/operators need class 1A/1B driver’s licenses. (BTW, that is defensible as safety law). It is also why a neighbor who will pull hose on a Saturday cannot become “the engine operator” in six weeks. Recruitment pages still say “no experience, we will train you.” Stations with zero assigned volunteers say the other half. Cathays Valley and Greeley Hill are named empty in 2026 county recruitment copy. That is not a PR problem. That is coverage gone.
What is ISO Ratings
It is a rating roughly based on the number of miles to a working engine. County Standards of Cover and ISO language score structure protection from a station that actually operates an engine or tender: roughly ISO rating 8 within five road miles, 9 out to ten road miles, and 10 beyond that, it gets better only where there are rated hydrants, (Jerseydale’s hydrants are not). ISO is also a very complex and detailed examination of the staff and equipment at the station.
When engines and staff are gone homeowners then eat the 150% premium, or lose their policy, while being told to “screen vents, join Firewise and convert the last 10’ to Zone 0 to reduce ember ignition. These efforts do not pump 1,000 gallons on a house when the Type 1 is in Bootjack and nobody is home at station 29, (Lushmedows) i.e. these fire wise efforts will not put out a structure fire.
The Oak Fire Made The Hole In Protection Visible And Then The Supervisors Looked Away.
On July 22, 2022, the fire started in Midpines and was on Jerseydale Road by the first night. Structure defense that week was state and out-of-county strike teams of engines, not a rebuilt local fire company.
Five weeks later Chief Ward asked the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors what service level they would pay for — extra-help, 10-hour staffed stations, or CAL FIRE contract crews.
The Board did not adopt a Jerseydale engine replacement plan. It kept a stipend for the existing volunteers, hired a few reserves, and pointed residents to hardening grants. It did NOTHING to stop our fire stations from becoming empty. That is the number one reason our fire insurance is going up 150%. And Ponderosa Basin and Midpines are in line to lose their volunteer companies due to attrition also. And so they should not sit back and count their current blessings. (And a Blessing it is) a Cal Fire engine in Midpines will not do anything about structure protection as required by ISO.
What the Board should do instead of another Firewise flyer
Commission an ISO / response-time map with empty stations drawn in, not the 2010 Standards of Cover that is a practical fantasy.
Fund full time, paid-call or reserve shifts at all county fire stations and not close them.
Plan on reopening closed stations and fund staffing as stated above.
Split volunteer tracks: support and medical vs firefighter/driver, so the Station hall is not all-or-nothing. Establish with county HR that time in volunteer work as a credit towards student loan debt. (there are several programs for that purpose)
Work toward replacing the current Cal Fire management staffing with the county’s own professional Schedule A staffing. (schedule A is structure fire whereas schedule B is wildland fire) County personnel should be supervised by county staff and there is a conflict of interest between wildland and structure firefighting practices.
Establish a county training program for all the personnel in the stations for the various responsibilities.
As Medical Aid remains one of the most often dispatches a dedicated vehicle should be acquired to take work off the type 1 & 6 fire engines.
Treat structure protection as a County budget line, and take serious responsibility, not an inconvenient after thought or by foisting the responsibility onto the home owner through Firewise.
Home hardening is necessary, and in some form has been done for the last 40 years. It is not a fire department. Jerseydale found that out when the engine was gone and the next fire was not a pamphlet. Firewise neighborhoods are real and useful. They are prevention. They are not an engine at the local station. Volunteer Recruitment still exists on paper. Reserve Firefighter I/II and two new Type 6s in 2026 help Midpines and town. They do not restore a staffed Type 1 on the Triangle–Darrah–Jerseydale side. They do not help where a station has closed. Amador-season CAL FIRE at Coulterville, Mariposa, and Usona is winter coverage on those three points.
Do not dump this on “people won’t volunteer.” People will not volunteer for a 200-hour training pipeline, paid $10 a call, and a hall whose engine has already left.
What got a little better — and why it is not enough
Fire Safe Council chipping and Brush & Chip, Resource Conservation District free home hardening (grant money), and a grant funded county Wildfire Mitigation Coordinator. These are great but not enough.
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