Sierra Madre Fire Department Accepted Into the Verdugo Fire System

Sierra Madre Fire Department (Photo – cityofsierramadre.com)

The Unified Response in the Verdugo Fire system is comprised of 13 fire departments that operate under a single automatic aid agreement.

By News Desk

When an emergency call is received at the Verdugo dispatch center, the closest available fire apparatus responds to the incident, regardless of jurisdiction.

On July 1, 2020, the Sierra Madre Fire Department was accepted as a participating member for the Verdugo Fire system.

Mayor John Capoccia said:

Congratulations to Interim Chief Bartlett and the entire Sierra Madre Fire Department for this historic achievement! I’m very proud of their hard work and dedication to prove to the members of the Verdugo agency that we were up to the task.

Sierra Madre residents should also be very proud and secure knowing that we’ve achieved this long-time goal.

From volunteer to career department

Sierra Madre has been a member of the Verdugo system since 1999, but has not been included in automatic aid and unified response due to its status as a volunteer agency. The Sierra Madre City Council established a goal in 2017 to transition from a volunteer fire department to a career department in order to be accepted into unified response.

City Manager Gabriel Engeland said:

Sierra Madre is safer, as are Sierra Madre’s neighbors, due to our acceptance into borderless response. I would like to thank our Interim Fire Chief Brent Bartlett, and the men and women of the Sierra Madre Fire Department, as well as our past Chief Kurt Norwood and Chief Steve Heydorff. Without their commitment and hard work, we would not have achieved the City Council’s goal of being accepted into automatic aid with our peer agencies.

Retired Fire Chief Heydorff also offered his sincerest congratulations to City Manager, the Fire Department and especially, to the residents of Sierra Madre.