Menlo Park Fire Protection District
Harold Schapelhouman serves as the Fire Chief for the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, a position held since January 2007. The Menlo Park Fire Protection District, established in 1916, provides vital fire and emergency services to multiple jurisdictions, including the Town of Atherton, the Cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, Unincorporated Areas of San Mateo County, and operates under contract for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratories, in addition to State and Federal Government for Water Rescue and Urban Search and Rescue operations.
Menlo Park Fire Protection District
The District covers a 30 square mile area near Stanford University in the San Francisco Bay Area for the communities of Menlo Park, Atherton, East Palo Alto, sections of Stanford University and unincorporated parts of Southern San Mateo County serving a greater community of 93,000 residents. The District has seven stations that are strategically placed to provide the most efficient response times and responds to approximately 8,500 emergencies a year with about 60% of them being emergency medical incidents. The Fire Board oversees fire protection, policy, budget and staff related issues. The District is also the hosting agence for the California Task Force Three (CA-TF3) Urban Search and Rescue Team: This unit operates under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As the sponsoring agency, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District has the responsibility of managing the team, preparing the group to respond to any incident within California or the United States. CA-TF3 is a specially trained and equipped 80 person Urban Search and Rescue Task Force consisting of 18 participating agencies and 60 civilians.