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Exh 3AAGENDA ITEM 3A FEBRUARY 11, 2002 Fire and Rescue Report February 4, 2002 Purpose: The purpose of this report is to provide information and answer questions that have been raised relative to Fire and Rescue operations in Atlantic Beach. Recent History: In June of 1999, the City of Atlantic Beach entered into an agreement with the City of Jacksonville for providing fire and rescue services in Atlantic Beach. This was negotiated to address a variety of concerns on the part of each organization. Atlantic Beach had a history of difficulties relative to Fire and Rescue services. There . were times when the staffing levels were so low that the Fire Chief and Assistant Chief had to work on the response units due to the limited, inexperienced personnel. There were fire supervisors with less than a year experience because of the turnover in manpower. There were times when Atlantic Beach borrowed trucks and equipment from the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department for months at a time because Atlantic Beach units were tied up on long term repairs. The Atlantic Beach Fire Department was unable to reach an Advance Life Support level of emergency medical service because every time an Atlantic Beach Fire Fighter was certified as a paramedic, he was hired by another agency. The turnover in manpower relegated the Atlantic Beach Fire Department to a training ground for other. agencies. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue also stood to benefit from the contractual relationship with Atlantic Beach. Coordination at fire scenes would be enhanced by having a unified command with communication with all respondingunits. The location of the fire station was advantageous, and Jacksonville would not need to purchase land and build a fire station. Atlantic Beach hired and trained excellent fire fighters, and Jacksonville would be able to hire the Atlantic Beach Fire Fighters into the Jacksonville organization. The contractual relationship would provide Atlantic Beach with an Advanced Life Support level of EMS service, assure the staffing of the station, and save the City of Atlantic Beach approximately $100,.000 per yeaz in operating expenses. Fire Fighting Philosophy: In many parts of the private .and public sector businesses are operated with a strong sense of economy in terms of staffing and equipment. A business typically sends the _ lease number of people, with the least amount of equipment to do a job. If the responding people need additional assistance, expertise, or equipment, then they request it and. it is sent to the location of the work. If the workers are required to wait for the assistance, it does not create a problem. In fire and rescue operations, this is clearly not the philosophy. AGENDA ITEM 3A FEBRUARX 11, 2002 For fire and rescue operations, sending the least amount of manpower and equipment can result in the endangerment of people and property. A delay in obtaining manpower and equipment can have disastrous results. For this reason, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department sends plenty of manpower and equipment to the scenes of emergencies. When a Chief on the scene determines that responding firefighters or equipment are not needed, then he/she advises responding units to disregard the alarm. On a typical building fire, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department sends four (4) engines, two (2) ladder trucks, a rescue unit, a safety car, and two (2) Chiefs. There are typically three (3) firefighters on an engine, which when added to the others, totals more than 20 firefighters on a scene.' This manpower and equipment may appeaz to be overkill for a minor residential fire. However, through experience, the department is anticipating the things that can happen at a fire scene. F"sres can spread to adjacem buildings, homes, and businesses. Firefighters can get trapped inside of buildings and need to be rescued by their other teams of firefighters. The possibilities of problems aze endless. At the recent fire on 12a` Street, there were twenty-one (21) Jacksonville Firefighters and Rescue personnel on the scene. Additionally, Fire professionals recognize that most fires aze extinguished from the inside of the building, not the outside. Although we may have seen images of firefighters standing outside and spraying water on burning buildings, the real work is typically done inside of the building. When Jacksonville Fire and Rescue goes to a building fire, they immediately try to determine whether or not anyone is inside. If the building is not "fully involved", then the firefighters enter the burning building where it may be full of smoke resulting in limited visibility and virtually no oxygen. They seek out the fire from inside the building to extinguish it.. It has been my observation, that the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue staff is comprised of aggressive firefighters who do not hesitate to attack the fire in this manner. At fire scenes, it is common to see firefighters outside of the building where they aze recovering from the physical demands from being inside while fighting the fire. It is often necessary to have additional firefighters on a scene so that they can take over for exhausted department members. Hydrant Testing Hydrant testing is performed bi-annually by the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue staff at Station 55, the Atlantic Beach station. They go to every hydrant in the city, and they open the hydrants to assure that they are functional and to check the flow of the hydrants. They log all of the inspections, and they notify the Director of Utilities, Donna Kaluzniak, when service or repairs are needed for hydrants. I have participated in meetings with Utilities and Fire Department staff, and they appear to communicate well with one another. This service is included in the contract between the City of Atlantic Beach and the City of Jacksonville. AGENDA ITEM 3A FEBRUARY 11, 2002 Response Times The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department logs all response times for all calls for service in Atlantic Beach. These `times are tracked and reviewed on a monthly basis. The response times are based on the time from the moment that a call is received by the Emergency Communications Operator, to the time that a unit arrives on the scene of the. incident. In contrast, the Atlantic Beach Fire Department calculated their response times from the time the units left the station to the time of arrival on the scene. The response times in Atlantic $each aze typically less then five (5) minutes. Fire responses have averaged approximately 4.9 minutes, and EMS responses have averaged approximately 4.4 minutes. These averages include locations outside of Atlantic Beach where Station 55 responds. The averages from 2000 to 2001 do not show any significant increase in response times. In comparisons with other response times azound the country and azound the City of Jacksonville, our typical response times are excellent. Simultaneous Alarms: The law of averages would suggest that. with more than 900 calls per year, there aze going to be incidents when the demands overlap. When local fire units have already been dispatched and committed to a fire, there will be some delay when other units are required to respond from 7acksonville Beach or Jacksonville locations. The same problem occasionally arises relative to EMS responses. When a fire squad is committed to a fire, that fire unit stays at the scene until the matter is under control and the assistance is no longer needed. It is not acceptable for a committed fire unit to pack up and leave to take another alarm until the current situation is under control. Jf there are two (2) overlapping incidents, then additional units are brought in from other locations. Tierra Verde Fire: A question has emerged relative to a house that burned last month on Tierra Verde. A fire alarm was received at 58 Dudley Street in Atlantic Beach for a building fire. Someone had left an oven on a cleaning cycle, and the oven had caught on fire. The fire fighters from Station 55, the Atlantic Beach station, responded to that location to extinguish the fire and remove the burning stove from the house. Less than ten minutes after the first alarm was received and while the fire fighters were on Dudley Street, an alarm came in for a house fire on Tierra Verde. Jacksonville assigned units to come in from Jacksonville Beach and Jacksonville locations. From these distances, the response time took longer than the usual Atlantic Beach response times. z AGENDA ITEM 3A FEBRUARY Il, 2002 The question has been raised: "Atlantic Beach once had two (2) fire trucks.... And if there had been two fire trucks on Dudley Street, wouldn't it have been feasible to send one of them to Tierra Verde?" The answer is, "No." 1. Until the first fire was under control, it would not be appropriate to pull people away from it to go to another alarm. 2. It is not feasible to send a few firefighters on a truck to fight a building fire. At a scene, it is inherently unsafe to enter a burning building without at least one person on the truck to handle the pumps, a two (2) person team to attack the fire, and another two (2) person team to assist. In my opinion, if Atlantic Beach had been running the Fire Department at the time, I don't believe that the responses would have been any quicker. They might have actually been slower, because Atlantic Beach would have had to request mutual aid from the other agencies. Jacksonville was able to send units without the red tape. Summary: Since the implementation of the Fire and Rescue Contract, the citizens of Atlantic Beach have received a higher leveLof service from firefighters with more experience and higher proficiency levels than their predecessors. When there have been complaints or problems, the incidents have been resolved to assure that they aze not repeated. Respectfully submitted: David E. Thompson Chief of Police/ Director of Public Safety Date: 02/04/2002 AGENDA ITEM 3A FEBRUARY 11, 2002 2000 Fire/Rescue Res Time EMS Jan-00 Fetr00 Mar-00 Apr-00 May-00 Jun-00 Jul-00 Aug-00 Sep-OR Oct-00 Nov-00 Dee-00 Average MontMyResE 19 .4.754 118 5.306 12 31 " 4.66 78 196 4.079 11 42 4.462 58 254 4.435 15 57 4.581 53 .307 4.209 17 74 4.385 67 374 5.092 14 88 5.998 53 427 4.07 16 104 3.511 74 501 4.29 13 11.7 .. 5.662 53 554 4.25 14 131. .. 4.318 69 623 4.286 13 14 5.317 72 695 4.283 12 456 - 5:314 51 746 4.294 21 477 - 5.454 - 59 805 4.37 loose Time 4.86825 4.413667 2001 Fire/Rescue Fire YTD Res Time EMS YT[3 Ras Times 1-Jan 1-Feb 1-Mar 1-Apr 1-May , Jun-01 Jul-01 Aug-01 Sep-01 1-Oct Now01 Dec-01 Average Monthly Resi 21 5.454 59 4.37 9 3Q 4.239 50 109 4.239 16 46 4.99 65 174 4.472 8 54 3.902 75 249 4.405 18 72 4.564 63 312 4.194 13 85 4.564 - 67 379 4.194 21 106 4.312 63 442 4.2 19 125. . 5.705 79 521 4.441 18 143. 4.955. .. 65 586 4.773 17 1 5.292 -- 55 641 4.985 10 1-74 6:067 66 707 4.696 17 48~ 4.937 - 65 772 4.737 rouse Time 4:915083 4.4755