A woman was seriously burned and a home was destroyed in the small desert community of Shelter Valley on Tuesday after it took firefighters roughly 30 minutes to respond because the local Cal Fire station was virtually unmanned. Residents say the Shelter Valley station has been mostly empty the past few weeks and they’ve been told the situation won’t change for a while because of staffing shortages.
The fire was reported at 8:33 a.m. Tuesday at a trailer in the town of roughly 150 people, about 10 miles southwest of Borrego Springs off County Highway S2.
Edward Genest, president of the Shelter Valley Citizens Corporation, said only one firefighter was in the station at the time and he wasn’t certified to drive a firetruck. An ambulance and firetruck from Julian responded, arriving shortly after 9 a.m., he said, but by then the trailer was a complete loss.
The woman living there, who Genest identified as Debbie Ramey, was taken by helicopter to a San Diego burn center with burns to her lungs and face. She had gone back into the burning trailer to try and rescue her dogs when she was injured, Genest and Cal Fire Unit Chief Tony Mecham said.