SAN DIEGO — San Diego Fire-Rescue has been shrinking response times in the downtown area with the deployment of a roving peak-hour fire engine.
CBS 8 checked in on the progress being made since the new engine was put into service five months ago in the East Village.
“You know, a 24-hour shift when you’re running 23 or 24 calls in that period is just exhausting and it’s not healthy for these folks,” said San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Colin Stowell, referring to the high call volume for crews at Station 4 on 8th Avenue and J Street near Petco Park.
Covering East Village and the Gas Lamp Quarter, firefighters on Engine 4 have dealt with an extremely heavy workload for years. But now they have help with the addition of Engine 80, a new roving peak-hour engine that is sharing their call load for 12 hours a day between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
“The intent of that peak-hour engine is to be out on the streets, alleviate some of the calls and the burden on Engine 4," said Fire Chief Stowell. "And to really be able to not be so worn down as the nighttime comes in that they’re going to be expected to run another 9 or 10 calls at night.”
Engine 80 has been providing much-needed relief since it was first deployed on December 31, 2023, and it has reduced response times by half a minute.
“The fastest response times anywhere in the City," said Fire Chief Stowell. "At 3 minutes and 40 seconds for an average, that is really extremely fast.”
While Engine 80 is assigned to East Village, a roving peak-hour engine like it could really be deployed anywhere.
“It’s addressing not only high call volumes but service gap areas, and we also know that we have hard-to-serve areas based on the commutes that we see here in the City,” said Fire Chief Stowell.
The idea of peak-hour engines isn’t new. A consultant recommended them in 2017 as a solution to coverage gaps but staffing challenges have delayed the rollout.
The implementation of Engine 80 is part of a pilot program that goes through the end of the year, after which we may see more of them in places like City Heights, Barrio Logan, and Liberty Station to name a few.
"Whether we expand these to other areas in the City, whether we increase this 12-hour engine to a 24-hour engine, those are all options that we’ll take under consideration,” said Fire Chief Stowell.
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