HomeMy WebLinkAbout#03 - Fire Department 2018 Year End Report STAFF REPORT
DATE: 2/5/2019
CONSENT
TO: City Council
FROM: Greg Malmquist, Fire Chief
AGENDA ITEM: Year End Fire Department Report for 2018
REVIEWED BY: Kristina Handt, City Administrator
ISSUE BEFORE COUNCIL: Review 2018 activity update from fire department. Advise on any
additional information requested.
PROPOSAL DETAILS/ANALYSIS: See attached report
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2018 ANNUAL FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
461 Total Calls for Service
Basic Incident Type Code And Description (FD1.21) Total Fires
100 - Fire, other 3
111 - Building fire 8
113 - Cooking fire, confined to container 1
116 - Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined 1
130 - Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other 1
131 - Passenger vehicle fire 5
140 - Natural vegetation fire, other 1
141 - Forest, woods or wildland fire 1
142 - Brush or brush-and-grass mixture fire 1
143 - Grass fire 2
150 - Outside rubbish fire, other 1
160 - Special outside fire, other 2
311 - Medical assist, assist EMS crew 140
321 - EMS call, excluding vehicle accident with injury 133
322 - Motor vehicle accident with injuries 17
323 - Motor vehicle/pedestrian accident (MV Ped) 24
352 - Extrication of victim(s) from vehicle 2
360 - Water & ice-related rescue, other 1
412 - Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 14
424 - Carbon monoxide incident 3
440 - Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other 10
444 - Power line down 5
445 - Arcing, shorted electrical equipment 1
500 - Service call, other 2
520 - Water problem, other 1
522 - Water or steam leak 1
553 - Public service 1
600 - Good intent call, other 1
611 - Dispatched and cancelled en route 49
622 - No incident found on arrival at dispatch address 1
632 - Prescribed fire 1
700 - False alarm or false call, other 3
745 - Alarm system activation, no fire - unintentional 22
746 - Carbon monoxide detector activation, no CO 1
814 - Lightning strike (no fire) 1
Total: 461
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RESPONSE BENCHMARKS
Total # of
Calls for
Month
# of Times
a Duty
Vehicle did
not
respond
% of calls
for month
that a Duty
Vehicle
responded
Average
Response
Times
(mins.) for
the Month,
Alarm to
On Scene
# of calls
with only 1
Responder
on First
Apparatus
January 34 7 83 6.9 4
February 29 9 75 7.5 4
March 37 13 65 7.1 7
April 46 7 85 7.1 6
May 52 12 67 7.1 11
June 36 5 86 8.8 5
July 36 13 64 7.75 15
August 35 14 60 8.9 10
September 43 12 72 8.1 11
October 33 6 82 7.1 8
November 43 6 83 8 6
December 37 11 70 6.6 7
YEARLY AVERAGE 74.33 7.58
YEARLY TOTAL 461 115 94
STAFFING
Staffing continues to be our greatest challenge, both POC (Paid on Call) and PT FF’s (Part Time Shift Firefighters).
POC
o At the end of 2018 we had, and currently have sixteen POC personnel, with one being a Probationary
Firefighter (not fully trained)
o Fire Fighter Richard Sachs retired after a 43 year career with the department. Richard served in nearly
every position in the department including a period of time as the Chief of the Department.
o One new POC started in June.
o Conditional Job Offer made to one recruit in November, still working to meet requirements.
o Four serious inquiries by potential POC’s, met with one, one submitted application and withdrew.
o Due to a change in his primary career, we adjusted the work hours of Administrative Assistant Captain
Nick Witter. While this has provided better administrative coverage throughout the week, it has also
created some challenges. The most significant of which is created by the Chief and Administrative
Assistant not consistently being on duty at the same time and having significantly less “face to face”
interaction, which causes more items to be handled via email and other correspondence.
PARTTIME
o The close of 2018 found us with five PT FF’s on staff while we are allotted six. (At the time of this report
we are at 3 PT FF’s with two in the hiring process)
o Only one PT FF remains on the roster from the original hiring of September/October 2017.
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o We have had only five applications in 2018 that were pulled from the hiring process either by the
applicant or us for not meeting requirements.
o We were fully staffed with six PT FF’s only 12 weeks in 2018.
o Most common reasons for resigning:
• Offered fulltime position in their primary career.
• Offered PT position elsewhere that better fit their lifestyle.
• Unable to meet minimum requirements due to conflicts with primary career.
o The significant amount of turnover and new personnel requires much more time committed to
orientation training by the Administrative Assistant and the Chief to bring new staff up to a basic
response level which greatly reduces the time we are able to spend on our duties. This involves
familiarization with our primary response apparatus, equipment, response protocols and overall
operational familiarization. Once this is accomplished we focus training on software programs related to
data entry, inspections, preplans, etc. Due to the high level of turnover, this is a never ending process.
TRAINING
o We concluded our contract with Century College for Firefighter CEUs and started a contract with a new training
company called “Make the Move.” We believe this will provide a much higher level of training, better suited for
our personnel.
o CIRAS (Collaborative Incident Response Active Shooter) Training,
• County wide, 63% of the Firefighters have been trained. Lake Elmo is 83% trained.
• Lake Elmo has provided two personnel that have trained to instructor level and participate in the county
wide training.
• Because of our higher level of personnel trained, we were able to purchase six ballistic vests with 100%
reimbursement from Washington County.
o Hosted live burn training for the Washington County Fire Investigation Team.
o Joint training with the Bayport FD on several occasions. (Bayport acquired several burn houses).
o Several personnel attended extra Auto Extrication training held at the East Metro Training Center.
o Increased the usage of our on-line training program, Target Solutions and included our PT FF’s as well.
o Our two POC Captains each attended one of the Fire Officer Training Schools in either Alexandria or Duluth.
o Chief Malmquist attended annual Emergency Management training.
o Chief Officers attended the MN State Fire Chiefs Conference in St. Paul.
o Ongoing familiarization with new developments and new roads, especially with our PT FF’s who haven’t had the
luxury of growing up in Lake Elmo.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION AND EVENTS
o The department participated in the First National Night Out held at Lions Park. We provided station tours, an
information table, recruiting and apparatus viewing. The Washington County Sheriff’s Department also had
personnel at the fire station.
o Safe Haven, which is a joint effort with the Washington County Sheriff’s department and has had proven success
in other communities, struggled to get off the ground due to issues with our initial mailing. This program
provides easy to follow instructions for homeowners allowing them to perform self-home assessments for home
security and fire safety. Homeowners may then request follow up action as well as free smoke detectors and
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range hood extinguishers. A successful fund raiser for the program was held in January by our new Arbor Glenn
residents. These funds helped offset the cost of program supplies in our budget.
o Numerous station tours for school kids and other groups, such as Scouts and residents that stop in.
o Several on-site visits to daycares for fire prevention activities.
SIGNIFICANT ITEMS
o New ISO rating effective July 2018, that was obtained by a joint effort of Public Works and Fire Department. We
were able to reduce our rating from a 6/9 to a 5 throughout Lake Elmo. This has the potential to save
homeowners approximately $250 on the annual insurance premium of a $350,000 home, if their insurance
carrier uses ISO.
o The new Rescue/Engine was ordered and is in the construction process at this time. The additional funding
required to fully fund the purchase of the truck and associated equipment was acquired through various grants
and donations from Lake Elmo Jaycees, Century Link, DNR Grant along with excess surplus equipment and the
trade in of our old hydraulic extrication tools. All of the equipment for the new Rescue/Engine has been
evaluated, selected and is in various stages of being purchased.
o Hydrant identification and marking project is in the final phase. PT FF’s began by gathering GIS coordinates for
all hydrants and entering them into our mapping/response system, IAMRESPONDING. All hydrants have been
done and as new ones come on-line they will be added. Working with Planning and Public Works, we have
begun assigning ID’s to each hydrant, attaching labels and replacing the old reflective marker sticks. This will
continue until complete and we will be adding flow testing of hydrants.
o Implementation of the Substitute Firefighter program. This allows POC FF’s to fill open shifts on a casual basis.
While it hasn’t been as successful as hoped, we have had several POC FF’s that have signed up for shifts and it
has improved our shift coverage.
o Having the PT FF’s has allowed us to increase the overall amount of time dedicated to our inspection/pre-plan
program. We bring PT FF’s on inspections, as well as train to do the very time consuming task of data entry. We
will continue to get them involved in the basic and follow up inspections however the high turnover of PT FF’s
and constant training does slow down the inspection/pre-plan program.
o AFG (Assistance to Firefighter Grant) application was completed in October, requesting $201,110.00 in funding
for SCBA replacements in 2019. Results of the request are pending.
PT FF’s (Part-time Firefighters)
While we continue to struggle to fill openings, we are seeing significant advantages and improvements by having shift
personnel.
o Gear washing for the entire department is required every six months and following an exposure. Our PT FF’s
expedite this process by washing multiple sets of gear in a day. The POC’s get their gear ready for washing and
the next day it’s washed, dried and ready to go. Significantly reducing the amount of time that Turnout Gear is
“Out of Service”
o Along with the hydrant program mentioned above, they clear snow from hydrants.
o Data entry of NFIRS run reports to the state, inspections, pre-plans, hydrants, etc.
o Assisted Public Works with hydrant flushing
o Assisted with set up and conducting training.
o Minor vehicle and equipment maintenance and repairs are done sooner and more of it in-house.
o Equipment is better maintained in a ready state due to regular truck checks.