Farmington, a rural California town of 262 people in San Joaquin County, is facing a major fire department issue with their battalion chief recently resigning and the county launching an ad-hoc committee.
San Joaquin County supervisors Mario Gardea and Steven Ding co-chair an ad hoc committee to investigate the Farmington Fire Department. Gardea said this is one of the larger areas and districts within the county.
“It’s public safety,” Gardea said. “Farmington’s kind of an island. I was a firefighter in Stockton. We had the ability for mutual aid to come from Lodi, from different neighboring fire departments. The response time for the neighboring fire departments in that area, there’s a challenge. So to make sure we have firefighters within their district or within their area that they serve, have that ability to respond and then rely on mutual aid to come out and give them a hand to help them mitigate the emergency.”…