Mike Bilheimer

The San Bernardino County Fire Department has withdrawn the water tender from the Wonder Valley Fire Station.
Wonder Valley is a remote desert area located east of the City of Twentynine Palms at elevations varying between 1,100 feet above sea level to 2,000 feet above sea level. Though it is sparsely populated, it boasts an estimated population of 4,000 throughout its more than 200 square mile expanse.
Wonder Valley lies proximate to the Pinto and Bullion mountains, Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Preserve. Within its confines there are hundreds of miles of well-maintained dirt roads, as well as two major paved highways: Highway 62 and Amboy Road. Highway 62 extends some 100 miles east, all the way to the Arizona border at Parker, Arizona. Traveling west on Highway 62 from Wonder Valley will take the traveler to Yucca Valley where it then bends south and extends to Palm Springs, some 75 miles distant.
Traveling Amboy Road in an easterly direction from Wonder Valley leads toward Laughlin and Las Vegas in Nevada (roughly 125 miles and 150 miles, respectively). Following it in the other direction will take the traveler toward Death Valley.
Wonder Valley is served by San Bernardino County Fire Department Station 45, located at 80526 Amboy Road.
The Wonder Valley Fire Department is staffed with paid volunteer firefighters, serving under the command of a county fire division commander, in this case Captain Mike Bilheimer, who was formerly a commander with the San Bernardino Fire Department before that entity was merged with the county fire service earlier this year. Bilheimer has been assigned to the Wonder Valley Fire Station since July 1.
For more than a half century, the primary capital vehicle of the Wonder Valley Fire Department was its water tender, which holds thousands of gallons of water. In the last fortnight, however, the community was informed that the water tender is no longer on station in Wonder Valley. In its stead is a brush patrol engine, which carries 250 gallons.
County official contend that the brush patrol engine provides adequate means of a first response and carries enough water to initiate a fight against a fire, while more water and fire suppression capability will be in transit, in the case of Wonder Valley, from the Twentynine Palms and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center’s fire department. Firefighters from the Marine base, with their more extensive firefighting apparatus, can reach Wonder Valley within ten to fifteen minutes, county officials insist. Mutual aid, that is, an agreement by which fire agencies have committed to assist one another, provides Wonder Valley with an assurance that the community will not be neglected or overlooked in a dire, or even less than dire, emergency, county officials maintain.
The tender that last served Wonder Valley was one that had been constructed by firefighters previously serving in Wonder Valley. They had altered an existing firetruck, welding onto its body and frame water tanks capable of storing over 2,000 gallons of water.
That tender was slower than the brush patrol vehicles, which in any event were on station in Wonder Valley previously and were generally the first vehicles to respond to fire calls.
Still the same, many Wonder Valley residents believe the county has slighted them by removing the tender, which provided a depth of immediate protection in the event of a conflagration that no longer exists. Some have pointed out that the 250 gallons of water in a brush patrol truck can be exhausted in less than three minutes and that knocking down a structure fire, such as one at a residence, will most certainly require more 250 gallons of water.