In fast-growing Santee, a plan to help fire department to keep pace

The Santee Fire Department is fighting to keep up with the growth of one of San Diego's fastest-growing communities.

The department hasn’t had an upgrade since the 1970s, which has posed a problem that the department wants to fix, but it needs financial help from the community to address it.

“We love our fire department,” Santee fire chief Justin Matsushita said. "We love our station. It just needs a little TLC and we need to expand."

If the fire station looks like something straight out of the 1960s, that's because it is.

“We’ve had two fire stations since 1964, and we have two fire stations in 2024,” Matsushita said.

Matsushita, who has been with the department for 23 years, said an upgrade is long overdue.

“You can see it needs a major facelift,” Matsushita said.

A citizens group has proposed a solution called Protect Santee. It's proposing a vote to raise Santee's sales tax by half a cent for about 15 years. 

“We have a problem in Santee,” said Patrick Henry, with the Santee Firefighters Association, talking about one of the fire stations. "It’s full of asbestos; it’s never been remodeled. We can’t really do an easy remodel — there’s asbestos in the carpet, in the ceiling, in the tiles."

Protect Santee organizers say the tax would be temporary and that the measure would include an oversight committee that can watch over it and dissolve it if payment is finished before that 15-year mark.

“People want to make sure this isn’t going to a general fund," Henry said. "They want to make sure this is a special tax. They want an oversight committee, and they want it to dissolve as soon as possible."

If you’re wondering what the money will be used for, one big takeaway is: space, inside and outside. Matsushita said they’ve crammed the load of four stations into two buildings, to the point that some units have to respond to emergencies from the back of the building.

“There’s no extra space,” Matsushita said. "There’s literally not a single bit of extra space."

With more space and better facilities, Henry and Matsushita saidm they’ll be able to keep firefighters in Santee and keep them happy. During the past five years, the SFD has lost 17 firefighters to other departments in the area.

“For us, that’s 70% of our firefighters,” Henry said.

Matsushita said when his department is able to go above and beyond at their jobs, everyone wins.

“Seconds and minutes matter in this profession," Matsushita said. "The quicker we can get to the emergency scene, the better the outcome. They literally live here 24/7/365 days a year, and we need to make sure what we’re providing our firefighters meets or exceeds what they would expect in their home life.”

The organizers of the Protect Santee initiative said they need 6,000 signatures to get the measure on the November 2024 ballot.