Chief's Monthly Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District
12
For the Meeting of January 10th,
2023
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: January 4,
2023
The
primary purpose of this report is to keep the Board of Fire Commissioners
informed as to the activities and progress on major programs or
objectives. The items listed, as near as
possible, are in priority order. As a second purpose, this report will be
shared with the Officers Management Team and all fire personnel.
Personnel:
We
had no personnel changes in December.
Our
annual Member evaluations are starting this month, new this year is a
self-evaluation form each Member will complete prior to meeting with their
Company Officer to review their evaluation with them.
Starting
January, our total on call Members is 78, 63 operations and 12 support. We have 1 on light duty, 1 on medical and 1
on leave. Out total number of personnel
is 89.
Interlocal:
The ambulance RFP for the
county has been awarded to AMR, I am unaware if an appeal has been filed by
ALS, I would expect the contract to go in effect around July of this year.
In the past month I provided public comment at two
County Commissioner meetings, once to encourage them to support funding Fire
District ARPA grants and once to support moving ahead with the ambulance RFP on
behalf of the County Chiefs Association.
Operations:
In
December there were a total of 91 alarms for our District, 85 we responded to, and
6 ambulance only BLS calls.
Incidents: YTD Incidents
by Zone YTD Zone
Station 51 15 150 22 248 (29%)
Station 52 20 194 39
320 (37%)
Station 53 11 139 19 212 (25%)
Station 54 3 51 5 80 (9%)
Station 50 36 (1Duty) 407
Yakima 0 4
Ambulance Only 6 (0Lift) 136
Total 1081
Incident
Type: Month Type YTD
Fire 4 2
bldg (1MA), 1 furnace, 1 doghouse
78
EMS 80 68 EMS, 11 MVC, 1 AMA 769
Hazardous
Condition 1 1 electrical 30
Service
Call 3 3 assist invalid 115
Good
Intent 2 1 burn, 1 smoke (Duty) 50
False
Alarm 1 1 AFA 39
Action
Taken: Month Type YTD
Canceled enroute 16 13
EMS, 3 MVC 87
Extinguishment 4 3
BLDG (1MA), 1 Furnace 72
Provide
BLS 58 667
Assist
Invalid 3 114
Investigate 9 1 Smoke, 1 AFA, 1 Electrical, 1 AMA, 2 MVC, 1 Burn,
2 EMS 120
Other 1 Manpower 19
Automatic
Aid Received (both agencies respond) Automatic Aid Given
From Highland 0 To
Highland 0
From Yakima 2 To
Yakima 0
From Gleed 0 To BIA 0
YTD 6 YTD 19
Mutual
Aid Received 0 Mutual Aid
Given 1 (Dist 1)
YTD 1 YTD 26
Three fires in District resulted in $110,450 losses,
the first was a $110k loss for fire in a house, a furnace fire resulted in $400
loss and a doghouse for $50 in loss.
Response Times: (Target= within
1 mile of station 8 minutes or less, add 2 minutes every mile after) Qualifying
Alarms: 63mo, 649yr, Target met: mo. 41 (65%) yr 434 (73%), Target not met: mo.
22 (35%) yr. 174 (27%).
Recruitment and Retention: By DC Jim Johnston
The 2022 Retention Plan for the year was
finished.
The Winter Recruit academy will start on
February 1st with Orientation followed by Advanced First Aid.
Department
Training and Safety: By DC Jim Johnston
December Drills included: Recruit Graduation, Equipment Check / Station
Drill, Officer Choice, & Pride and Ownership.
Developed the January Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill,
SCBA Confidence / SCBA Quarterly, Equipment Scramble, & State of the
Department.
The Safety Committee met on December 14th for the fourth
quarter meeting.
Lieutenant Pfaff will be co-instructing a Wildland Saw Class in February.
Budget/Finance:
By Officer
Boisselle
The
Audit is complete, and we will be holding our Exit Conference on January 17th. In our wrap up discussion the auditor did not
note any areas of concern, so I am expecting a clean audit report.
Fire
Prevention/Public Education: By Officer Boisselle
The
first edition of the 2023 District newsletter will go out the end of January.
The
Yakima Valley Fire & Injury Prevention Group is “re-structuring”. This month will be the second meeting where
priorities will be set, and a budget will be discussed.
Logistics:
Work at Station 54 to upgrade the kitchens and make
the Community Center restroom ADA accessible continues, for about $1000 we were
able to add a shower stall to the restroom to be used for Firefighter
decontamination.
With the brush truck chassis on order, we have begun
developing the specifications for the truck build. The overall design is based
off Brush 54 since it was the last brush truck we built.
January purchasing schedule is for BP cuff sets,
upgrading the training center AV to wireless, converting vent saws to wildland
saws and a snowplow mount for the surplus DNR brush truck we received a few
years ago. Additionally, the command
vehicle scheduled for this year has been ordered.
Strategic
Plan:
We have finalized the
fourth quarter of 2022’s Action Plan, developed the 2023 Communications Plan
and begun working on first quarter 2023 action items. The plan has been posted on the District
website and will be in our District Newsletter going out this month.
Grants:
After requesting the
County Commissioners fund Fire District ARPA projects there has been no
movement on any ARPA funds, with a new Commissioner taking office priorities
may change.
We were notified last
month our AFG grant for radios will not be funded from FEMA.
We will receive $554 from
the State Trauma Grant program this year.
Legislation:
Legislation we are
currently watching are efforts to enact the volunteer pension enhancements that
were approved in 2021, any constitutional amendments to increase the 101% levy
rate to inflation rates, and state grants for fire/ems. Once the legislature convenes and bills start
dropping, we will develop a list of bills to watch and/or comment on. The annual WFC/WFCA legislative day is
February 17th.
Good of the
Order:
Last month we held our fourth quarter
Captain’s meeting, among many subjects discussed we talked about the future of
the Firefighters Association, and all are working to see the Association
continue and succeed. The Association
Board has sent a survey out to all Members for input on the future of the
Association and possible changes to have more involvement.
During the December meeting I was
re-elected President of the Yakima County Fire Chiefs Association for a second
term.
Respectfully,
Nathan Craig
Fire Chief