EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif — After years of being closed, two fire stations in El Dorado County are up and running thanks to volunteer firefighters.
"It's really exciting, and I think the community is really excited about it," said volunteer firefighter, Julie Wynia.
According to Chief Mark Matthews, the Pioneer Fire Protection District [PFPD] serves about 10,000 people in the communities of Somerset, Mount Aukum, Fair Play, Oma Ranch, Grizzly Flats, and Outingdale.
"'I'm not sure I would want to make a full career out of it because I enjoy my work as a biologist and [in] vegetation management, but this is a great complement to my career," added Wynia.
Wynia is one of PFPD'S 24 volunteers. Up until last month, Chief Matthews explained that the Grizzly Flat station had been closed for 4 years, and the Oma Ranch station was closed for more than 10.
"Even though at this time money is very tight, we were able to, with donations from our Pioneer Volunteer Fire Association Group, and other groups – open up these two stations and give them the training and education that they needed," said Matthews.
Matthews says they also received money from Cal Fire that helped reopen the Oma Ranch and Grizzly Flats stations.
"All of us up here just have really big hearts for helping people, and we're all volunteers. We all live in the area of Grizzly Flats," said Kara Garrett, PFPD'S public educator.
Kara Garrett says before the Grizzly Flats station opened last month, it would take crews up to 25 minutes to respond to an emergency in that area.
"It's very important because we needed increased response times because up here it's pretty windy roads, so, even an engine going code 3, they can't go faster than 45 mph," Garrett explained.
She also pointed out how crucial it is to have that resource in Grizzly Flats, where about 2,000 people live, in the case of a wildfire.
"With our little strike teams that we have, we're able to go and knock out that fire as much as we can until the bigger help arrives," Garrett added.
Chief Matthews told ABC10 he hopes to add 10-15 more firefighters within the next two months.