Deer Springs Fire Protection District
8709 Circle R Drive • Escondido, CA 92026 • tel 760-749-8001 • fax 760-749-6572
April 5, 2024
Sid Morel was hired as the Deer Springs Fire Protection Districts Fire Marshal in 2015. He had recently retired from the North County Fire Protection District where he started his career, promoted through the ranks to the position of Division Chief / Fire Marshal. Sid came to Deer Springs’ attention when a proposed subdivision was divided between both districts.
Sid helped guide the project along, not only keeping North County’s interest at heart but also Deer Springs. When we heard Sid was retiring early from a back injury we reached out and were thrilled that he would help us revive our Fire Prevention Bureau as a non-safety Fire Marshal.
Sid’s experience with North County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan was a great benefit to creating ours. Sid was instrumental in working with Fire Planners to get some politically charged new developments approved. He did not give in to pressure and was able to bring the county, the developers and the public together. I made a comment to Sid about his talents and wondered why he wasn’t pursuing his own Fire Consulting business.
I highly recommend Sid and Santa Margarita Fire Consulting for creating your Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Liz Heaton
District Administrator
Deer Springs Fire Protection District
8709 Circle R Drive
Escondido, CA 92026
(760)-749-8001
(760)-749-6572 fax
http://www.deerspringsfire.org
San Diego County continues to have the most restrictive Wildland Building Codes and strict enforcement of the Dead-end Road requirement has shut many projects down. After many years in business our wedding facility, Los Willows faced being shut down by the strict interpretation of the Dead-end Road length requirement.
Sid Morel and Dave Bacon were willing to take on the challenge of creating a fire protection plan for our wedding venue. They created a solution that had never been presented to the county and was out of the box thinking. Their experience as firefighters and understanding of the codes allowed them to present a plan to the county of San Diego that was approved.
During the Rice Fire of 2007 we had completed about half of the recommended requirements that Sid and Dave had put in our plan. The Rice Fire burned around our project and the only damage we sustained were a few small holes in the wedding tent. Their plan allowed our Venue to survive without the presence of firefighters defending it.
Thanks to Sid and Dave’s in-depth expertise and creativity we were able to obtain an extremely difficult Major Use Permit. Top notch experts!!
Catherine Ransom, Owner
Los Willows Inc.
530 Stewart Canyon Road
Fallbrook, CA 92028
760-731-9400
March 19th 2024
There doesn’t seem to be any easy properties to develop in San Diego County anymore. The fire requirements are a big part of getting projects approved. I have found that the best Fire Protection Planners have a background in construction as well as wildland firefighting.
Sid Morel and the Santa Margarita Fire Consulting team have a background that proposes features that can be built with reasonable methods.
They tackle difficult projects with realistic designs that make sense while also meeting the local Fire
Marshals’ expectations.
I highly recommend Sid and Santa Margarita Fire Consulting for your wildland fire protection plans.
Warm regards
Derek Berg
Design Principal
Phone: 760-390-0007, Ext 1
Email: Derek@MADesigning.com
12975 Brookprinter Place
Suite 270,
Poway, CA 92064
www.MADesigning.com
As a fellow colleague that has devoted his professional career to the furtherance of fire protection and prevention, I highly recommend Santa Margarita Fire Consulting as a trusted resource for fire protection planning.
From Fire Protection Plans to Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans, Santa Margarita Fire Consulting relies upon seasoned fire protection experts that utilize industry best practices to develop workable solutions that meet both customer needs and regulatory requirements
Santa Margarita Fire Consulting uses an ethics driven approach to create plans that deliver achievable results in the real world.
Stephen Abbott, Retired Fire Chief, North County Fire Protection District