Inside look at Boulder Creek Fire Department in ‘storm mode’

It’s one of the busiest teams around when it comes to emergency response during a storm and they are all volunteers.

Right now, the Boulder Creek Fire Department is prepping for round two of rain this week.

“They could be in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner and if that pager goes off they leave their families and come on down here,” said training officer Gabe Vega.

Last week’s heavy rain and strong winds sent all 40 volunteers into what they call storm mode, “What storm mode is, is we in a sense become our own emergency operations center,” said Vega.

Boulder Creek Fire shares the same radio frequencies with the rest of the county, but to help alleviate overload on the lines, dispatchers still fax information to the volunteer station for non-lifer threatening calls like trees down.

“We start dispatching our own crews on a separate channel to alleviate a lot of the work that our dispatchers have to do.”

Vega has been a firefighter for 14 years and you could say it’s in his blood, his father, brother and father-in-law are all firemen.

Vega says the volunteers at Boulder Creek Fire don’t do it for the money. They only get $8-$10 for every call and are paid once a year in December.

“They’re really doing it because they want to give back to the community,” said Vega.

While these volunteers are out on calls for mudslides, wires or trees down, their family members are welcome to come stay at the station.

“It’s a tremendous load off your shoulders is what it is because our homes, we could be without power or water at home, but the family doesn’t have to suffer through that,” Vega said.

As far as preparations for the storms over the next few days, the Boulder Creek Fire Department said it doesn’t have any specific worry spots, but volunteers will have their eyes and ears open everywhere.

Boulder Creek Fire is doing its annual fundraiser, this year all proceeds from Christmas tree sales go towards the purchase of new medical and rescue equipment.
Sales began the Friday after Thanksgiving and will continue until they sell out.

Hours: Monday through Thursday 5-8 pm, Fri. 5-9 pm, Saturday & Sunday 9 am to 9 pm.