Chief's Monthly Report
Fire Department
Monthly Progress Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District 12
For the Meeting of March 9, 2021
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: March 4, 2021
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.
Operations:
In February there were a total of 61 incidents of which 51 were responded to by our personnel.
Incidents: YTD Incidents by Zone YTD Zone
Station 51 6 21 10 30
Station 52 14 27 25 49
Station 53 5 11 12 19
Station 54 1 7 3 13
Station 50 24 45
Yakima 1 2
Ambulance Only 10 18
Total 131
Incident Type: Month Type YTD
Fire 8 3 building (2 AA, 1 MA), 1 brush, 1 chimney 10
EMS 43 39 EMS, 3 MVC, 1 Med Alarm 97 Hazardous Condition 1 1 electrical problem 4 Service Call 6 6 assist invalid 7 Good Intent 1 1 outdoor burn (answered by duty) 6 False Alarm 2 2 auto fire alarm 4
Action Taken: Month Type YTD
Canceled enroute 5 2 Auto Fire Alarm, 1 EMS, 2 AAid bldg 9 Extinguishment 6 3 bldg, 1 chimney, 1 brush, 1 MA bldg 9 Provide BLS 39 84 Assist Invalid 4 5 Investigate 7 1- outdoor burn, 2 mvc, 2 EMS, 1 AMA, 1 elect 24 Other 0 0
Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond) Automatic Aid Given
From Highland 0 To Highland 0
From Yakima 1 To Yakima 2
From Gleed 0 To BIA 0
YTD 1 YTD 4
Mutual Aid Received 1 Mutual Aid Given 1 (YFD)
YTD 1 YTD 1
Response Times: (Target= within 1 mile of station 8 minutes or less, add 2 minutes every mile after) Qualifying Alarms: 34mo, 76yr, Target met: mo 25 (74%) yr 54 (71%), Target not met: mo 9 (26%) yr 22 (29%)
Losses: Three incidents in February resulted in losses, the biggest loss, while not in monetary value was the loss of a $700 shed that resulted in two civilian fire fatalities. Additionally, two homes were heavily damaged by fire, the first resulted in $110,000 in loss and the second was $364,000 in losses.
Personnel:
With our Training Lieutenant vacancy, we have chosen to change the duties of this position and remove them from the Training Division and created a Duty Crew Lieutenant position. The DCLT position is posted internally and closes March 5th with an assessment center scheduled for March 10th.
Station 53 Firefighter Chase Tucker moved out of District and resigned. Station 51 Firefighter Jarret Paullin has resigned.
Starting February, we have 83 on call members, 62 in service for operations, 12 support, 3 medical leave, 1 light duty and 6 on leave of absence. Our total number of personnel is 92.
Strategic Plan:
In addition to our regular monthly action plan items, in March we are creating benefit posters to increase member awareness of benefits, finishing the build out of the fitness center at Station 51 and reviewing our CAD map against response times to determine if any boundary changes for stations would reduce response times.
For our strategic communications plan this month our external message is home fire safety and recruitment. Internally our message is recruitment.
Department Training and Safety: By Captain Jim Johnston
February Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Modules 1 & 2, Building Construction / Fire Protection System Review, & Ladder Operations.
Developed March Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Workshop A, Burn Trailer Evolutions, Pumper Operations / Engine Company Attack Evolutions, Brush Truck Review / Shelter Video & Throw.
On February 6th and 7th FF Andrew Pfaff taught a Wildland Firefighter 1 Class to seven students.
On February 9th two Training Officers from Yakima County Fire District #5 toured our Burn Trailer, we provided some good training evolutions with the Duty Crew for their observations. They are currently researching a Burn Prop for their training purposes.
On February 24th Chief Craig, Captain Hendrickson, Lieutenant Scully, and myself traveled to Fort Jones California to purchase a new used Aerial Fire Apparatus. When I get back from vacation, I will be working on a Training Matrix for this new piece of equipment.
Recruitment and Retention: By Captain Johnston
With Chris Lyons leaving, the Recruitment and Retention will fall under my scope of work in the Organization Chart. I will be working on this when I get back.
Cadet/High School Program: By Captain Johnston
With Chris Lyons leaving, Firefighter Andrew Pfaff has been hired as the interim Instructor for this class. I will oversee the program at least thru the end of this school year. We will address the future of the program in the upcoming months. Right now, there are six students that are attending the class. They currently are working on practical skills.
Budget/Finance: By Officer Boisselle
Over the last couple of weeks, I have participated in several webinars in preparation for our 2020 Annual State Auditor reporting. I will begin gathering our information and working on the report in March/April.
Logistics:
Station 51 Phase II final punch list meeting is March 9th, several of the items we have been waiting for are arriving this week and next and we should be on track to take ownership this month. The furnishings and other equipment are on order or have arrived and are slowly being moved into finished spaces.
The elevated master stream truck in California checked out and was a great buy that will fit our needs. We made the purchase and drove the truck back to the District near the end of February. We have gone through all the systems on the truck and developed a list of equipment or minor repairs that need to be made before putting the truck in service. In the next few weeks the truck will go through the diesel shop to be serviced and inspected then through the fire service shop to make repairs and inspect everything to ensure we put a safe apparatus on the road that will last for many years.
The specifications for Engine 51 are out with bid opening scheduled for March 8th. We hope to have a qualified bidder at our meeting for your approval. Right before finalizing the specifications Station 51 requested some changes to the chrome areas of the engine, we put the changes in the spec without knowing if there is additional costs, should there be an increase from our estimate we can make any necessary changes during the required pre-construction meeting to cut costs if need be.
Tender 52 has been in the shop for repairs that were identified during pump testing.
We have finished all the preliminary work with US Cellular for their tower at Station 51, the next step is to sign the lease so they can begin the process of land use and permits. We are hoping to have the lease agreement on the agenda for this meeting.
The wind damage to the fence at Station 53 has been approved for repair by our insurance company. We decided to upsize all the posts on the east fence to prevent the wind from damaging it again, if we have more issues, we will have to remove some of the fence slats. Jon Sitkin has requested all the information from our landscaping company regarding the issues we had with the previous arborvitae to request a variance from the County. Our hope is the County would not force us to plant something we cannot maintain and already had trouble keeping alive.
Grants:
Through the DNR Phase I grant system we purchased wildland equipment including two KING radios for state mobilization fires.
Legislative:
HB1448 the bill concerning penalizing paid on call firefighters for service while unemployed appears dead in the House.
ESHB 1056 has passed the House and is a bill concerning virtual meetings after a declared emergency. This bill pertains to posting agendas online, however it allows a public agency to hold board meetings remotely or with limited in-person attendance. The bill does require the public to be allowed to listen in real time to the meeting.
SHB 1329 Public Meeting Recording and Comment was going to require us to provide remote access to meetings and encourage us to post meeting recordings online however, an amendment has eliminated these mandates and encourages having public comment time on the agenda. I am unsure if it will just be encouraged to always offer remote access or mandated as most of the discussion has been on public comment. The ability to post and audit all meetings would be difficult and open litigation most likely.
SSB 5384 allows volunteer firefighter leave of absence for state mobilization fires if the employee notified their employer of their volunteer status and arranged for leave if mobilized.
Interlocal:
The Communications Committee has dedicated $100k to updating our radio repeaters and we have requested an additional $100k from the state capital budget.
The county wide radio group is meeting with a representative from Senator Murray’s office and has been in contact with the County Commissioners regarding potential funding sources to keep the project moving forward.
Good of the Order:
The awards banquet is scheduled for March 27th with a Covid safety plan in place.
Retired member Frank Freshwater passed away this month. The District will be involved however his family would like for his services later this month.
Respectfully,
Nathan Craig
Fire Chief