The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has authorized a three-year agreement with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to use the Los Guilicos Campus in Santa Rosa for a year-round fire base.

Cal Fire will have access to unused and underutilized facilities on the campus in order to support the county’s fire prevention and response needs. The hope is to “significantly” improve wildfire and other emergency response times.

The site, located at 538 Eliza Way, will provide 1 acre of outdoor space and more than 10,000 square feet of indoor, multi-use space including the former Sierra Youth Center building, the former classroom/multi-use building, and the adjacent parking area, court and yard.

According to the county, this Cal Fire site will be the first fire camp in Sonoma County since the 1990s. They plan to move in beginning in late spring, with a lease agreement that runs through March 31, 2025.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.