April 2021 Fire District Newsletter

City of American Canyon, California sent this bulletin at 04/12/2021 09:53 AM PDT

April 2021

Chief's Message

We are making progress on many fronts currently here at the Fire District, but we have a lot of work ahead of us in our efforts to keep our community healthy and safe! On April 7^th we had our COVID-19 “second shot” clinic at Holy Family Catholic Church and vaccinated close to 300 members of our community. Thanks again to the amazing folks from NorthBay Health, Napa County Health/EMS, American Canyon CERT, American Canyon Fire Protection District, the City of American Canyon and Holy Family Catholic Church. This was a ‘team’ effort and we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you.

Fire District personnel have and will be supporting a number of community related events during this month including the Annual Bunny Hop. Next month the Napa County Bike Coalition is planning on holding a “Happy Heads” pop up adjacent to Fire Station 11 (American Canyon Public Safety Facilities adjacent to Shenandoah Park on Donaldson Ave. East).

On a more ‘FIRE SAFETY’ note, the draught that we continue to experience here in Northern California continues to show signs all around us as the green grass begins to turn brown and dry out here in early April. We still haven’t recovered locally from last year’s FIRE SEASON and we are starting our preparation for another one! Soon the hills around us will transition to that California Summer golden brown that we are all too familiar with. It’s WEED ABATEMENT time and I would like to remind everyone that we all have a responsibility to help reduce the threat of fire in and around American Canyon by cutting our weeds, high grass and insuring that we reduce the accumulation of combustible materials on our properties. The Fire District will be mailing out its annual Weed Abatement letters to property and business owners in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for these letters and notices!

Finally, it is with mixed feelings that I make notice of the departure of two of our dedicated firefighters. One to a retirement and the other to a neighboring Bay Area fire agency. Firefighter Kent Barnes a resident of American Canyon has left us unfortunately due to a work-related injury that has permanently interrupted his ability to continue his role as a firefighter with us. Kent was a very active and valued member of our department and spent a considerable amount of his off-duty time supporting a number of the Fire District’s community outreach efforts. His work with our CERT Team and its members has been a major contributor to that program’s success.

Fire Captain Matt Churchman resigned last week to take a lateral firefighter opportunity with Oakland Fire Department. Matt has been with us for over 14 years, starting out as a firefighter and promoting to Fire Captain a few years ago. His leadership and commitment to our Fire District has been key to some of our most essential programs like our Urban Search and Rescue Team, new employee orientation, New Employee Recruit Academy training and most recently the securing of a major SAFETY Grant that allowed us to totally replace our self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) equipment. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term SCBA, this is the scuba tank like equipment that firefighters wear on their backs which provides them with “clean air” to breath when they are in smoke filled and other hazardous environments. His dedicated leadership has been instrumental in almost every operational aspect of our Fire District Operations.

We will miss both of these gentlemen greatly and we wish them both of the BEST in their future endeavors.

Mike Cahill
Fire Chief

Click here for the Monthly Statistical Report for March 2021

MyTurn Vaccination Sign-up Help!

On Saturday, March 27^th, Members of the American Canyon Fire Protection District and American Canyon CERT went door to door in areas of the City identified with a population that may not have internet access, may not be familiar with technology, or their primary language was not English to ensure that they had access to register for the COVID-19 vaccine.

We encourage you to help your family, friends, and neighbors who want to register for the vaccine by going to www.myturn.ca.gov

EVERYONE COUNTS!

Bunny Hop Event

On Saturday, April 3^rd, ACFPD personnel attended the City of American Canyon’s ‘Bunny Hop’ Drive Thru Event. The Firefighters had a blast handing out candy, but when we received a copy of this amazing drawing, from a little girl who was so excited to see the Easter Bunny and exclaimed “She was REALLY GOOD THIS YEAR!”… We just had to share! As you can see, it says “HAPPY SUN”

Firefighters Done with Probationary Training

(Pictured from left to right) Firefighter Quick, Firefighter/Paramedic Drossos, Firefighter/Paramedic Cano

Firefighter Training Complete!

On April 7, three of our firefighters completed an 18-month probationary training period after passing their Module 4 test. We would like to congratulate Firefighter Preston Quick, Firefighter / Paramedic Francisco Cano and Firefighter / Paramedic Sypridon Drossos on a rigorous and difficult training program. “Train as your life depends on it, because it does”

Congratulations!

Successful Second Dose Vaccination Clinic Completed!

Your American Canyon Fire Protection personnel along with NorthBay Health Care, Napa County Public Health, and American Canyon CERT held a second dose clinic at Holy Family Catholic Church on Wednesday, April 7^th.

With this comprehensive team of professionals, 275 Napa County residents were vaccinated in 4 hours in this drive-thru format. We want to thank Holy Family Catholic Church for providing their facility to the community for this service.

If you have not yet registered to receive the vaccine visit https://myturn.ca.gov/

Weed Abatement

Spring has sprung and the grass is growing. Each year around this time, we start to receive dozens of complaints about tall grass on properties that need weed abatement. We wanted to take a moment to ask everyone to make sure their yards and properties are mowed and fire safe. ACFPD is working with commercial and vacant lot owners to ensure weeds are abated and we are fire safe. ACFPD is working with residents to ensure everyone gets the message to mow their weeds. In the coming weeks ACFPD will begin mailing weed abatement notices. Take this opportunity to make sure your yard is ready for the warm weather and fire safe!