Ventura County Star; Gretchen Wenner

Oxnard Fire Department personnel, joined by City Councilmember Irene Pinkard, hoist an oversized check from State Farm signifying a grant that will help firefighters learn Spanish on iPads.

Oxnard firefighters will learn Spanish on iPads with help from a grant from State Farm, the company announced this week.

“Often, on scene, none of us can speak Spanish well enough to determine what the problem is,” Oxnard Fire Department Capt. Alex Hamilton said Wednesday.

About 31 percent of the city’s population isn’t comfortable speaking English, he said. Nearly 58 percent of the department’s calls in 2011 concerned medical emergencies, where communication about symptoms is key.

Oxnard, with about 200,000 residents, is Ventura County’s largest city. Some 73.5 percent are Latino, according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau figures.

The $10,300 grant paid for eight iPads, a laptop that serves as the program’s mother ship, Rosetta Stone language training software and subscription services that will last for four or five years, Hamilton said.

Each of the city’s seven fire stations received an iPad. Station 1, which has more personnel, got two tablets. The equipment has been in place about six weeks, and Hamilton said he’s gotten “a ton of positive feedback” from staff members so far.

The program is voluntary. Most participants likely will learn Spanish in the evenings after structured activities wind down.

The department offers an incentive for bilingual staff members of about $20 a paycheck, Hamilton said. But firefighters are self-motivated, he said, and any who has been hindered in the field by a language barrier likely will want to learn how to communicate effectively.

“A good number of guys are really keen to better themselves,” he said.

The iPads have already brought fringe benefits, Hamilton added, such as allowing for video conferencing rather than having units out of service for meetings.

“We’re just scratching the surface of the potential of these things,” he said.

Eddie Martinez, a State Farm spokesman, said the insurance and financial services giant gives out about $66 million in grants annually, including a previous one for $25,000 to the Oxnard Fire Department for ocean safety education.

The Spanish-training grant falls in the company’s “safety” category.

“With those tablets, no doubt they’ll be able to save lives and communicate with the community,” Martinez said.

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