Kern County Fire Department: A Case Study

The Golden Fire Department (GFD) is proud to introduce our newest employee Kathleen (Katie) Quintana! Katie Joined the GFD Fire Prevention Bureau staff in mid June 2015. She worked for the City and County of Denver for 10 ½ years, there she held a variety of clerical and administrative positions. Her last few years with Denver, Katie worked for the Denver Police Department doing photo enforcement, after that she was a 911 call taker. In 2005, she accepted a position with the Aurora Fire Department (AFD) as a front desk receptionist. Shortly after she was hired, she was promoted to fire inspector. Katie spent eight years with the Aurora Fire Department. During her tenure, she became an ICC and state certified Fire Inspector II, she also received

On November 14, 2003, a fire was reported at the Greenhalgh Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Pawtucket Fire Department was dispatched to the fire. One of the satellite stations, Cottage Street Fire Station, happened to be directly across the road from the old mill and could see first-hand that the fire was already fully engulfed. This fire rapidly spun out of control, destroying three mill buildings, thirteen homes, and damaging seventeen other structures before being contained. Twenty-one mutual aid departments from Rhode Island and Massachusetts were called in to assist the Pawtucket Fire Department. Looking at the article, Rhode Island and Massachusetts Units Converge on Pawtucket Mill Fire by Jay K. Bradish, from both the engine and truck company perspectives, in my opinion, the call for additional resources and an adequate supply of water were appropriately implemented, while the implementation of the Incident Command System and the accountability of fire personnel were handled improperly during this fire.

Many department, including BCoFD, are looking for different solutions to help fix this tissue. The goal of this research project is to conduct a needs assessment and provide recommendations to the Baltimore County Fire Department for an outline of a curriculum for a CP course based off the findings of the needs assessment. Extant data was collected by using inclusion and exclusion criteria requirements in the data collection tools from both ImageTrend and National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFRIS) for non-emergency calls. In 2014, BCoFD initiated a specific policy for non-emergency responses that was collected through EMED reports in ImageTrend. During that year, the number of Non-Emergency Responses came to 8,590. In 2016, non-emergency responses came to a total of 12,102, almost 3,500 calls more from 2014. As of March 30th, 2017, the total non-emergency call responses were at 3,615 and continuing to grow. Not only non-emergency calls are climbing, but the total call volume for BCoFD is increasing more and more each year. Since 2013, there has been an average of 5,705 increase calls each

In making the decisions to protect people’s lives from hazards and disasters, evacuations sometimes become necessary. Of course early in the reaction to the incident, or the response phase, this may become a decision for local and state emergency managers. The San Diego, California wildfire which occurred in October 2007 caused a large scale evacuation. This essay is an analysis, and identification of lessons learned from the evacuation incident. As well a plan of personal recommendations and improvements will be made based on information covered in the National Housing strategy, and Robert Stafford Act.

Fire Chief Rick Pavick gave me insight about general information related to the Texarkana, AR fire department. According to Chief Pavick, there are 57 full-time firefighters, however they are still understaffed by 16 at this time. The fires in this community is low in all categories but more house fires occur and is the primary concern. The average response time is 5 minutes on average. There is not a central water supply but there are fire hydrants. The Insurance Services Office (ISO) fire rating is a 5 for this community. The community’s low support for the department financially is related to the community not being aware of the needs of the fire department. The department does offer fire prevention education for the community and adequate

department on February 5 of 1850 with the formation of Mutual Hook and Ladder station #1.

Continuing with the theme pf department promotional processes, Michael High’s presentation, Promotional Process, provided a glimpse into the North Star Volunteer Fire Department (NSVFD). His evaluation of the promotional process showed that the overall process was the same for paid and volunteer members. Interestingly the fire department has used career positions to develop a core staffing consisting of some lower level position, but mostly staffing officer level positions. Their promotional process is largely based on time served in a current position and educational requirements for the promotional position. These requirements were described to be listed in the department’s Standard Operating Procedures. It was Michael’s presentation that

The Council Bluffs Fire Department earned 39.3 out of 50 possible points in the 2014 ISO evaluation. Details of the credit earned in the Fire Department section are found in Table 8.

I am writing this letter to compliment the IAFF for a job well done. A few months back we had two instructors from the IAFF come to our firehouse, and over the course of three days they taught our 80 member hazmat team on the subject of illicit labs. The information given was accurate and very applicable to our profession.

Since there has not been a train derailment in the city of Oxnard before, first responders and partnering agencies were facing an unfamiliar incident. In the hours post-collision a number of major tasks were achieved. The Oxnard Fire Department (OFD) responded and the Battalion Chief assumed Incident Command (IC), he immediately declared a level 3 Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) and set up a unified command structure, requesting numerous additional resources (National Transportation, 2016c, p. 10). In accordance with the Ventura County Emergency Medical Services (VCEMS) MCI plan “A medical communications officer (MEDCOMM) was assigned at the scene and base hospital contact was initiated with Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC)” (Ventura County,

The situation that is happening with the Bay City Fire Department is very disturbing because they are supposed to be one of the few pillars in the community for people to trust to get their job done, and I believe they have a very important role to fulfill but they are slacking majorly. A few speculations on why they are violating standard operational procedures because that is how the older firefighters did it in the past. Since many of the firefighters in charge are much older than the recruits they have ways of doing tasks differently than the new regulations that were put in place over the years. Another speculation that could be made is that there may not be much commotion in the community and whoever gets to the fire the quickest or to the accident the fastest will get the recognition and the excitement of completing a task. Thirdly, the mild form of hazing that the veterans put the recruits through contributes to why they are not progressing and why many of them are dying in fires. They are taught by the older ones that they have to look and follow specific duties in order to become a real firefighter. The last reason they might be having so many accidents is that the older regulations that the captains are following and the new regulations that recruits are following are clashing literally with the truck crashes and figuratively with ideologies.

As part of the PRECEDE-PROCEEE model our group will conduct a needs assessment. A needs assessment is an important tool that uses quantitative and qualitative methods to systematically collect and analyze health data within a

Inherently the fire service operates in high-risk environments to facilitate the role of preserving life safety and property conservation. How these incidents are managed and safeguarded by our administration

Three methods were chosen for the needs assessment. The first was an informal OES (Hatch,1998) to collect and analyze information on the current RCBPSPs situation. (Note Appendix A)

The greatest threat facing the Modern Fire Service is the rate at which firefighters are dying in the line of duty. Excluding the terrible event of 9/11 that occurred in 2001 that forever changed the dynamics of the emergency response services1, firefighter deaths have averaged around 100 fatalities each year for the since 1990. This unacceptable rate of firefighter deaths has found its way to be a benchmark in the industry. The problem is that the benchmark should be zero firefighter deaths while on duty and every year that there is a fatality is a year that the fire service has failed its members. The number one cause of firefighter related deaths yearly is proven to be medical, stress, or overexertion related fatalities2. All of these causes of firefighter deaths can be avoided with implementation of training and awareness.