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| After a five-month leave of absence, Antonio Moreno returns to Plymouth's Battalion 20 Fire Department. |
Last Friday, while Moreno's resumption of the post was still in the works, Moreno talked about his 21 years as a volunteer firefighter in Plymouth and how he began in the profession.
"I think it's a mixture of seeing the need in the community and the learned trait from my grandfather and my parents of being community-involved," Moreno said. The need showed clear when in the early 1980s a fire in Plymouth burned a house to the ground. Though no lives were lost, the condition of the department made him aware of its disorganized state. He said in those days, city fire protection was summoned by an old air-raid siren on top of the hill and "anybody on the street could jump on the truck, grab a hose and respond."
He said it was before litigation.
On that occasion in the early 1980s, there was no water, the hoses were not working and responders could not get the pump to work, Moreno said. It showed him that "because you are getting people coming off the street, you're lacking the organization to respond correctly."
Moreno then graduated high school in 1983 and became a volunteer for the Plymouth Fire Department, which then was run by the city of Plymouth.
"There was nobody to teach us, 'This is how the fire engine runs,'" Moreno said. That's when he, his two brothers and his cousin began a complete reorganization of the department, spearheaded by his brother Frank.
Moreno said Plymouth's was the last fire department in Amador County to modernize. At the time, he said, the county contracted with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for coverage of unincorporated areas of the county. The CDF had two one-engine stations: one in Sutter Hill and one in Dew Drop. CDF supplied equipment, such as the jaws of life and radio communications.
The Morenos - Antonio, brothers Frank and Dominic and cousin Rocky - all career firefighters - took classes and set to work improving Plymouth's fire department as volunteers.
Moreno went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for a year, studying architecture and was hired as a student fire fighter at the college. At the end of that college year, spring 1985, " I decided to be a professional firefighter," Moreno said. He began studying soon afterward at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton toward a fire science degree, which he achieved in 1993. He was certified as an Emergency Medical Technician I in 1984 and in 1986 he was hired as a firefighter with El Dorado Hills Fire Department, where he has been working ever since as a full-time employee, while simultaneously volunteering for the department in Plymouth.
He was promoted to volunteer chief in Plymouth in 1989 and promoted to fire captain at El Dorado Hills in 1991.
As a volunteer, he would work his days off, carrying a pager - up until the end of February, when he took some personal time off. Moreno was honored at the Aug. 12 meeting of the Plymouth City Council, when Mayor Michael O'Meara presented him with a certificate for his service to the community.
Jon Colburn of Plymouth congratulated Moreno and thanked his entire family for its work on the fire department.
"I've witnessed many moments when they went beyond the call of duty to serve the city," Colburn said.
"It's a lot of work," Moreno said Friday. "But it's a love of the work. I love doing it."
And it became more work.
In 1999, Plymouth decided to contract with the AFPD for fire protection, Moreno said. Before that, the department covered responses within city limits - about 1.5 square miles - and had an "automatic fire aid" agreement to assist in a 36-square-mile area of Amador County. When they joined AFPD, he said, their coverage area spread to Fiddletown, River Pines and Willow Springs, where departments joined together to create Battalion 20 of the AFPD and Moreno became battalion chief, getting a "lower rank but more operational duties."
"I anticipated it would be less work," he said. The coverage area grew from about 36 square miles to about 130 square miles, Moreno estimated.
Moreno was raised in Plymouth and learned community involvement from his parents, Tony and Marla, who ran a market on Highway 49.
"I attribute a lot of my skills to my grandfather," Moreno said. His grandfather, Harold Colburn, held various posts around the county.
Moreno lives in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife, Michelle and they have three boys, Cody, Kyle and Christopher.
His brother Dominic is still a volunteer with the Sutter Creek Fire Department and works as a firefighter for the Sacramento Metro Fire District. Frank and Rocky don't volunteer anymore, but Frank is battalion chief of the Folsom Fire Department and Rocky is an engineer, also working for Sacramento MFD.
Moreno has also volunteered for search and rescue with the Amador County Sheriff's Office, usually helping to locate lost hikers. He also served as a sheriff's reserve deputy volunteer in the late 1980s, to develop a background for fire investigation.
He earned state certification as a fire officer in 1991, has served as a strike team leader for the county, was division group supervisor and was a staging area manager. He is also past president of the Amador County Fire Chiefs Association, which generally meets to discuss issues on fire service in the county, he said and was an alternate to Jack Quinn for the Amador County Emergency Medical Care Committee. He was also appointed as alternate for fire service representation for the Amador County Office of Emergency Services.