It was a site the Assistant Chief of Training for the Burton Fire District didn’t expect to find when he showed up to work Monday morning.  

He discovered $4,000 worth of electronics had been taken from the Pinewood Station in Beaufort, all while firefighters were inside sleeping.

The County contracts with CAL FIRE to provide fire and emergency medical services in the community of Palomar Mountain. The fire station at 21610 Crestline Road, built in the early 1990s, sits on 3.29 acres. Currently, it has no living space, so firefighters temporarily sleep in an adjacent Community Center.  

In addition to the living quarters, the County plans to add an office, widen and pave a fire truck access road and make the station compliant for visitors with disabilities.

According to police, the ambulance had its lights on and sirens blaring as it made its way down Poplar. When it reached the intersection, the driver repeatedly honked the horn and almost came to a complete stop before proceeding.  

Before it made it through, a Nissan Sentra clipped it. The impact sent the ambulance into a pole. Both vehicles sustained damage.

The ambulance driver, a passenger and another witness told police the Nissan sped through the light in an attempt to beat the other vehicle.

The city expects to receive about $1.1 million more from the increased sales tax between July 1, when the new rate goes into effect, and April 30, 2019. Voters on March 20 agreed to double the city's non-home-rule sales tax rate, from .5 percent to 1 percent.  

The priciest item on the list Dawkins presented? Spending $605,000 to replace a fire engine. There also are plans to replace a 19-year-old dump truck/snowplow/salt-spreader, for $200,000, and to replace three police vehicles, for about $109,000.

The fire department also is adding ballistic vests and helmets for ambulance crews at a cost of about $14,000, but it's paying for that with development-fee money.

The engine being replaced is 19 years old.