Smith delivered a presentation to the public in the Whately Town Offices on Wednesday and told The Recorder later that the building has “floated to the top” of a list of places the SCEMS Board of Oversight has investigated over the past two and a half years.

“South Deerfield has been a great host,” he told the collection of people at the new 4 Sandy Lane municipal offices in the former regional library building. “The truth of the matter is we don’t fit and we need something else.”

At 7:27 p.m., a medical call came in and some of the medics in the room left to respond to a reported eye injury.

Smith said there is a SCEMS ambulance at the South Deerfield Fire District, the Sunderland Fire Department and the Whately Fire Department. His office is in Deerfield Town Hall. The idea is to consolidate these sites into one location. But the idea of moving the service’s headquarters from Deerfield has upset some of the town’s residents.

ire Chief Jeff Carman said the new engine was just one of as many as 15 apparatuses they hope to place in the District this year thanks to the support of the Board of Supervisor.

“I like that we have a plan in place in the District to make sure that in the future that we will not run into the problems we have had with equipment and our firefighters will now be using state of the art equipment,” said Carman. “I appreciate the pride and tradition of our firefighters in Contra Costa County. This all happens because

Fire Captain Mike Quesada explained the housing ceremony tradition which dates back to the date of housing old engines which were pushed into stations because they couldn’t back up horses. The tradition stuck.