Administrative Headquarters
14700 Winchester Boulevard
Los Gatos, CA 95032
408.378.4010 or 800.800.1793 (voice)
408.378.9342 (fax)
Offices hours are: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm, Pacific Time
For all non-website related communications, please contact Karen Kuns (sccfdrec@yahoo.com).
Built: 1984
The Headquarters building provides office space for all administrative staff, and is the facility from which the department deals with the public for daily business needs. This is where people seeking information should come or call (see office hours above). It is located on the northbound side of Winchester Boulevard, just south of Highway 85, and north of Lark Avenue.
This antique Ben Lomond Hose Company hose cart was on display in the lobby of the Headquarters building for many years.
Prior to moving to its current Headquarters, the department had it's offices on Driftwood Drive in San Jose (1975). This facility is now the offices for the Firefighters Union Local 1165. Historical photos of this building when in use as Headquarters can be seen on that page.
The Department also maintains two Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS), linked via telephone/satellite to CAD and CDF nets, on Blackberry Hill Rd, Los Gatos (1993), and on Altamont Rd, Los Altos (1997), to monitor weather conditions in the wildland/urban interface areas.
These weather stations, mounted atop 10' (3 M) tripods, gather basic weather information such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction. They process this information with historical data to come up with a probability of potential fire severity. County Fire and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) are the only two agencies in the area to use RAWs. The alert level determines what level of response is dispatched to a fire. During high alert conditions, County Fire may request additional resources such as helicopters, and air tankers, which would come in from Hollister and the central valley.
Every hour, computers at the Monte Vista Station in Cupertino acquire data from the two weather stations and run it through a complex program to come up with "ignition component probability" and a "burn index". The ignition component finds the probability of a serious fire starting with the right weather conditions. Weather factors that could increase the probability include lightning storms and high winds. The burn index is a large overview of all weather factors that contribute to fire, including "fuel moisture", defined as how dry the vegetation is.
Fuel moisture is automatically generated by the computer's historical weather data. After an unusually dry spell, fuel moisture is dry, so the probability of a serious fire increases.
The burn index and ignition component probabiity is sent to county firefighters three times a day, and heavily influence staffing and response levels. The computer's recommendation is only one factor, however, and at times will be overridden by human decisions.
Headquarters sign prior to the department's name change.
One of several utility vans, used for inspections and routine business.
This 1994 Chevrolet Suburban is used by the department's Safety Officer. It formerly served as battalion 3 out of Los Gatos Station.
This Ford minivan is used by the Public Education Unit.
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