Falcon Fire Protection District Fire Chief Trent Harwig spoke at the May 31 Falcon Area Issues Roundtable meeting. He focused on current challenges facing the FFPD.Harwig, an 11-year veteran of the FFPD, has served as fire chief since 2003. During his tenure call volume has increased from 400 calls each year to over 2,000 calls in 2007, he said.To meet the demands of a growing community within the confines of current tax revenues, Harwig said he is thinking outside the box. His achievements as fire chief include an intergovernmental agreement with Cimarron Hills Fire Protection District designed to decrease response time to Claremont Ranch, utilization of special grants to employ full-time fire fighters and adoption of the 2003 international fire code requiring buildings over 6,000 square feet to install sprinkler systems.”We never should have let Claremont Ranch be built without a fire station,” Harwig said. In order to avoid a similar situation in the Sante Fe Springs area, the FFPD agreed to staff a station if the developer built the facility.Harwig said as Falcon grows the 20-year plan includes the addition of fire stations in Sante Fe Springs, Claremont Ranch, and a facility at Rex and Meridian Roads. “We’re trying get it so tax payers don’t have to pay for new buildings,” he said. Stations would be built using impact fees collected from residential land lot sales, he said.Harwig also created an agreement with building-supply retail giant, Lowes. The current firehouse sits on four acres of land that is part of the 20-acre building site for the retail store. Lowes will build a new fire station at Golden Sage and Woodmen Roads in exchange for the land.For more information about the FFPD visit www.falconfirepd.org.
