To provide highly trained all-hazard fire and emergency services in order to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and support recovery efforts aboard MCB Camp Pendleton and surrounding communities with the highest level of customer service through excellence in fire prevention, public education, training, response, and support to the Fleet Marine Force, tenant commands, and their families.
Camp Pendleton Fire and Emergency Services is an all-risk, all-hazard first responder agency safeguarding lives, property, and environment through 24-hour fire, rescue, hazardous materials, and emergency medical services.
The Fire Department is divided into five branches
Fire Executive Management
Fire Operations
Fire Emergency Medical Services
Fire Training
Fire Prevention and Public Education
Fire Operations is the largest branch within Camp Pendleton Fire and Emergency Services and is responsible for structural fire suppression, wildland fire suppression, technical rescue, emergency medical services, hazardous materials mitigation, and disasters mitigation.
Fire Operation Branch is led by the Deputy Chief of Operations, with four Division Chiefs leading two shifts (A and B) and an Assistant Chief of Wildland.
Approximately 67 personnel make up each shift who are housed within eleven fire stations located throughout the installation. The installation is divided up into two Divisions (Division I encompassing Fire Stations 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9 and Division II encompassing Fire Stations 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 28). Ranks consist of Captains, Lieutenants, Firefighter/Paramedics and Firefighter/EMTs working an alternating 48-hour shift schedule.
Fire Operations personnel are highly trained, professional workforce responding to more than 4,000 calls for service, annually.
Camp Pendleton Fire and Emergency Services maintains a fleet of emergency apparatuses to respond to emergency incidents. In addition to the front-line apparatus, the department has a reserve fleet to place in service when additional staffing is required to support mission or when front-line apparatus experiences mechanical issues:
Seven (7) Type I Fire Engines and five (5) Reserves
Two (2) Aerial Ladder Trucks (100ft and 75ft)
Nine (9) Type III Brush Engines and four (4) Reserves
Four (4) Rescue Ambulances (staffed with one Firefighter/Paramedic and one Firefighter/EMT) and one (1) Reserve
Two (2) Rescues (Heavy Rescue and Light Rescue) and one (1) Reserve
One (1) Swift Water Rescue Trailer
One (1) Urban Search and Rescue Trailer
One (1) Type I Hazardous Materials Unit
Ten (1) Type VI Brush Patrols
Eight (8) Chief Officer Command Vehicles
Operations Branch Vision Statement
To be a well-respected and progressive branch to provide timely, professional, all-hazard response with qualified personnel to mitigate a wide array of emergencies that threaten the lives, property, and/or environment to the warfighter, family members, civilians and the communities in which we serve. This branch prides itself on providing the highest level of customer service ethics that is a characteristic of the Camp Pendleton Fire and Emergency Services Department...customers first!
Initiatives
Reduce response times by continuing to monitor and analyze every response, ensuring proper resource deployment aligned with incident mitigation needs, and reduce turnout times.
Develop a Pre-Incident Fire Plan Program for all facilities and training areas.
Continue to advocate and collaborate with MCICOM Fire and Emergency Services Program Director on replacing old, beyond lifespan, and un-serviceable fire apparatus through the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) Program.
Continue to advocate and collaborate with NAVFAC, PWD, and MCICOM on replacing current old, beyond lifespan, and not suitable for living/work safety environments through MILCON Projects.
Continue to work the life-cycle procurement project on replacing all equipment and tools for all levels of service. Seek opportunities to be more involved in our community with non-emergent requests for customer service events. Continue to build strong relationships with our mutual aid cooperators through emergency response, training opportunities, and collaborations workshops.
Vision Statement
To provide superior patient centric ALS/BLS pre-hospital care; providing timely, professional, highly skilled and qualified customer services to the warfighter, sailors, family members and civilians we are entrusted to serve. Commitment to excellence through maintaining EMS advancements, continuous quality improvement (CQI), expanding educational platforms, professional development, delivery system efficiency and internal/external stakeholder collaboration through mutual partnerships. Continue to lead the DoD with an inclusive culture, commitment to the team’s well-being and safety, and to put service before self.
Initiatives
Develop a comprehensive continuous quality improvement patient care program in support of San Diego protocols to track individual performance, compliance and trends. CQI will be designed to educate providers, enhance patient care, and provide an opportunity to develop lessons learned through the process of identifying education and training shortfalls, review of case studies, follow up on patient’s dispositions, and risk management principles – prevention and error reduction.
Develop a professional development model for the advancement of para-medicine professionals to ensure appropriate supervision, field training, and field observation. Review the current ambulance deployment model and conduct an analysis on call types, call volume, response times, staffing, overlapping call’s frequency, transport/in-service times, and transport apparatus locations that seek opportunities to enhance the level of service for EMS to the community.
Review the current EMT-Basic Driver Operator/BLS Attendant Program that pursues and delivers opportunities for scenario based training, hands on assessment skills, BLS transport confidence and teamwork with an ALS provider for all call types. Continue to build bilateral relationships to foster a sustainable and comprehensive continuing education program for EMT-Basic and EMT-Paramedics.
Vision Statement
To provide; leadership, training opportunities, proficiency training, career development, mentorship and certification to our members ensuring a competent, efficient, and effective all-hazards emergency response organization. This will be accomplished by maintaining strategic relationships with external cooperators, training exceptional people and developing efficiencies in training standards & competencies. Provide a robust firefighter health, wellness and safety program that is aligned with NFPA guidelines and the 16 Life Safety Initiatives. The Training Division will provide; knowledge, develop individual skills, and improve team abilities in support of the USMC mission and protecting our community by providing highly trained professional emergency responders.
Initiatives
Develop a Firefighter Health & Safety Program in compliance with NFPA 1500 and 1582; develop a cancer prevention and mental health & wellness program.
Implement professional development programs to include but not limited to: Chief/Company Officer Leadership Academy, Firefighter Career Development Program.
Continue to enhance the training center development plan through infrastructure, prop procurement, field instruction, and joint opportunities with our external cooperators.
Develop, enhance and align specialized training programs such as; Truck Academy, Technical Rescue, Hazardous Materials (CBRNE), Wildland and Incident Command to support our mission and community risk.
Evaluate and revise department proficiency training programs encompassing NFPA 1001, 1002, 1006, 1021, 1031, 1041, 1670, 472 and 1072. Participate in training opportunities with SD North Zone, OCFA and with other local cooperators. Provide company & chief officer participation as well as instructor cadre to training events.
Review, revise and develop policy & procedures (PTB’s. MI’s, SOG’s, external cooperator partnerships, etc.).
Fire Prevention and Public Education
Fire Prevention Branch is led by the Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention (Fire Marshall) and employs seven (7) Fire Inspectors whose mission is to provide the highest quality fire prevention program within the Marine Corps Fire Service. Success is measured by program integration within each tenant command and the population we serve. This is accomplished through vigorous and effective code enforcement & Fire/life safety inspections, a year around hands-on public education initiative, as well as detailed and engaged fire engineering and fire protection design analysis of new and existing construction.
Initiatives
Develop a tiered code enforcement inspection cycle frequency, based on OVAP scores and occupancy type for the entire Installation.
Continue providing plans review and design analysis for all new construction aboard the base. Attend all planning meetings to ensure fire protection measures are met.
Implement a year around public education program that uses risk data to drive educational content as well as provide additional warden training to tenant commands upon request.
Provide area commanders with timely risk data for all 21 areas aboard the Installation. Each commander is provided a snap-shot of analyzed data that drives enfacement and educational initiatives.
All career opportunities are posted on www.USAJOBS.gov
Firefighters are within the “0081” series