Los Osos has contracted with San Luis Obispo County Fire for over two decades.
“County contracts with CAL FIRE to provide that service," said Los Osos Community Services District (CSD) General Manager Ron Munds. "So, we’ve had CAL FIRE staff in our station since 2004. It’s been a great relationship."
After a 25% increase in service fees, the Los Osos CSD looked at other options, which included a new contract with San Luis Obispo County Fire, partnering with Morro Bay Fire, or contracting directly with CAL FIRE, which is what the board decided to do earlier this month.
“To kind of get the county out of the middle of it, we’ve been paying quite a bit of overhead to the county for services we thought well, not sure it’s quite worth the money we’re spending,” Munds said.
Munds told KSBY News the change eliminates county-wide overhead, which can range from $200,000 to $300,000 annually.
He also says residents won’t see any immediate changes to Zone B property or special fire taxes.
While staffing under a Morro Bay Fire contract would have increased slightly, the option chosen keeps the same three regular positions and one reserve firefighter that the town has previously been staffed with.
Munds says a special fire tax increase could be on the 2028 election ballot in order to increase staffing to four full-time firefighters.
Station 15 Captain Justin Hanadea shared how the reserves program works.
“It allows us to have the two in two out so we can make a quick initial attack on a fire without waiting for additional personnel,” Hanadea said.
He added that reserves work one to two shifts a month.
Breece Eherenborg is an engineer-paramedic and has worked at the Los Osos station for four years. Eherenborg says she’s glad to stay in Los Osos.
“We really feel the love, especially when we’re out in the public, going to Ralphs, getting our food, seeing people we’ve run on and just they know you by first name a lot of the times and you’re just very intertwined into the community,” Ehrenborg said.
The three-year contract will cost the town $3,845,661 yearly.
