A flea infestation that began under a Fairfax playground in late July has now reached the quarters where the town's firefighters sleep — and pushed the Town Council into its second emergency carve-out in a month from the pesticide ban it has long treated as a point of civic pride.

Fairfax is one of a handful of California towns that broadly bars pesticides on public property. That values ordinance is now colliding with a pest problem the town's non-toxic tools couldn't outrun: in roughly four weeks the town tried a compliant steam treatment and then a first spraying exception, only to watch fleas jump from Peri Park to the community center doubling as the temporary firehouse. On Thursday the council voted unanimously — the second suspension of its own rule in a month — to allow EPA-regulated insecticides in firefighters' quarters, while asking whether the signature ordinance needs a rewrite for emergencies like this one.

It started with bitten children. In late July, parents reported kids coming home from the Peri Park playground with flea bites. The town closed the playground on July 24↗ (external source, opens in a new tab), citing "a significant flea infestation" and pledging an "ordinance-compliant approach." Staff later blamed raccoons that had been denning nearby, the Press Democrat's Callie Rhoades reported↗ (external source, opens in a new tab).

Because the town's ordinance largely forbids pesticides on public land, staff began within the rules, with a non-toxic steam treatment that required no council waiver. It worked at the playground. The trouble was next door: while treating the site, crews found openings into the crawl space beneath the community center — the building temporarily housing firefighters and their engine while Fire Station 21 is remodeled. That is where the town first had to bend its own rule. On Aug. 5 the council approved its first carve-out, permitting limited spraying beneath that station to keep the crew in place.

It wasn't enough. This week the fleas turned up inside the firefighters' living area, and the crew and engine decamped to Fire Station 20 on Butterfield Road near Sleepy Hollow, about 1.2 miles away in San Anselmo. Emergency service continues, officials said, but 911 responses into Fairfax now run a little longer with the engine based out of town — a gap that lands in the middle of peak fire season.

That set up Thursday's special meeting, where staff sought approval to treat the whole temporary station with three California-registered, EPA-regulated flea products applied by the pest-control firm EcoGuard. Public Works Director Kristin Arnold said slower town-approved options — boric acid, diatomaceous earth — would take weeks, while spraying could return firefighters within days. Once the products dry, she told the council, they pose very little risk to people. Ross Valley Fire Department Battalion Chief Jake Peterson said he was "highly worried," with several firefighters already reporting bites.

The vote was unanimous — and impatient. Councilmember Michael Ghiringhelli, objecting to being summoned back roughly every week for another single-use waiver, told colleagues: "We can't come back here every seven days." He argued the town needs standing authority to deal with the pests rather than a fresh emergency vote each time. Councilmember Barbara Coler pressed staff for assurance that this treatment would finally break the cycle rather than tee up yet another waiver; Arnold said she expected it to but wouldn't guarantee it. Town Manager Heather Abrams said crews wouldn't return until at least a day after treatment, once the building had aired out and staff confirmed the fleas were gone.

That is the story beneath the story. An ordinance written to keep poisons off public land has now required two separate suspensions in a single month to fight one outbreak — each one a discrete vote, each one arriving as an emergency, after the town's compliant non-toxic option ran out of road. Councilmembers said they want to revisit the pesticide rules so the next infestation doesn't mean another string of waivers. The open question is whether a standing pest-control policy should replace the week-by-week improvisation. Firefighters could be back within days, and the Peri Park playground has gone two days without a flea sighting.