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helps departments reduce costs without impacting service delivery. All of these situations point
to the need for good working relationships with other fire and EMS organizations.
CAL FIRE utilizes its mutual aid and automatic response agreements very effectively. Clearly, the
interaction between Morgan Hill and SSCCFD is the most common form of automatic response
occurring between the two agencies on a daily basis. Both agencies co-respond and cover
each other’s areas as part of normal operations. As mentioned earlier, this is a very effective
process that elevates overall efficiency. Our observation is that the interaction between Morgan
Hill and SSCCFD is very equitable and in fact both agencies are able to fulfill their mission
because of this interaction and cooperative arrangement. Table 4-4 summarizes the type of
interaction that occurred between the two jurisdictions during the study period.
TABLE 4-4: Workload Distribution between Morgan Hill and SSCCFD
Workload Measure
Morgan Hill
SSCCFD
Mutual Aid/Other
Call Distribution
55.7%
35.0%
9.3%
Unit Response Distribution (Runs)
46.0%
45.4%
8.6%
Workload Distribution/Hours
31.2%
57.1%
11.7%
When we look at the workload distribution between Morgan Hill and SSCFD there are a number
of ways to measure the utilization of resources for response activities.
If we look at
call distribution
, which is a measurement of each actual incident (fire, EMS, other)
and where they occurred, we find that 55.7 percent of the incidents (3,066) originated in
Morgan Hill city limits. Similarly, 35.0 percent of the calls (1,929) were in the District and
approximately 9.3 percent (513) were outside the two jurisdictions, primarily mutual aid and
cancelled responses. We can also evaluate workload on the basis of
unit responses
, which is the
number of unit movements or runs that were made. This distribution shows that 46.0 percent
were made into the City, 45.4 percent in the District, and 8.6 percent for mutual aid and other.
The number of unit responses varies from the number of actual calls because on each call,
particularly fire calls, multiple units respond, whereas on a typical EMS call, only one unit will
respond.
When we evaluate the workload distribution/hours, we are looking at the combined time spent
by all units for all responses. So if five units spend 20 minutes on a call, the total workload is 100
minutes for that call. If a single unit responds to a call and it spends 20 minutes on that call, it will
account for 20 minutes of workload. This measure of workload hours incorporates all time
associated with the call, from the time a response unit is alerted to the time the assignment is
completed. In workload distribution, the District saw higher numbers than the City, even though
the call distribution was higher in the City and the run distribution was nearly the same. CPSM
attributes this to the longer response times associated with each response in the District and the
higher number of actual fires and MVAs, which typically have longer call durations than EMS
calls. Overall, however, the distribution of resources and workload is very equitable between the
City and District and the current practice of combining resources in serving both jurisdictions is
the most cost-effective approach.
CAL FIRE units operating in the Morgan Hill and SSCCFD service areas frequently interact with
neighboring agencies on mutual aid assignments. Agencies want to ensure that the frequency
in which resources are given is comparable to the frequency in which resources are received.
CAL FIRE has automatic response agreements primarily with the cities of San Jose, Hollister, and
Gilroy. In addition, there is interaction between Pajaro Valley and the Pacheco station. CPSM
estimates that mutual aid was given a total 443 times in 2015. During this same timeframe CAL
FIRE units received mutual aid a total of 258 times. The mutual aid and automatic response