Chief's Monthly Report
Fire Department
Monthly Progress Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District 12
For the Meeting of October 13, 2020
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: October 6, 2020
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:
Station 51 Firefighter Ethan Bunting has been granted leave and Recruit Jordan Koffler resigned.
Starting August, we have 95 on call members, 65 in service for operations, 13 support, 3 medical leave, 2 light duty and 12 on leave of absence. Our total number of personnel is 105.
Budget/Finance: By Officer Boisselle
As the Board previously indicated that they are in favor of levying the lawful 1% increase, plus the cost of new construction, would make our 2021 operating budget amount $ 1,727,321. We will review projected carryover amounts and proposed Capital Expenditures. We will have a full draft budget at the October 27th meeting for review.
The County has changed their practices for Budget submittal. They no longer need line item budget amounts, but simply a requested levy amount. In essence we will just have a bucket of money we will be working off of.
Operations:
In September there were a total of 76 incidents of which 69 were responded to by our personnel.
Incidents: YTD
Station 51 8 90
Station 52 20 153
Station 53 10 74
Station 54 5 48
Station 50 26 276
Yakima 0 6
Ambulance Only 7 59
Total 706
Incident Type: Month Type YTD
Fire 8 2 building, 1 cooking, 3 brush, 1 trash, 1 AA chimney 68 EMS 59 52 EMS, 7 MVC 493 Hazardous Condition 1 1 power line 25 Service Call 3 3 assist invalid 29 Good Intent 5 1 outdoor burn, 4 smoke 47 False Alarm 0 26
Action Taken: Month Type YTD
Canceled enroute 3 1 EMS, 1 MVC, 1 AA Chimney 62 Extinguishment 6 3 vegetation, 2 bldg, 1 trash 63
Provide BLS 53 424 Assist Invalid 3 27 Investigate 11 1 outdoor burn, 3 EMS, 1 elect, 4 smoke, 1 mvc, 1 cooking fire 120
Other 0 10
Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond) Automatic Aid Given
From Highland 0 To Highland 1
From Yakima 0 To Yakima 0
From Gleed 0 To BIA 0
YTD 3 YTD 22
Mutual Aid Received 0 Mutual Aid Given 0
YTD 1 YTD 13
Response Times: (Target= within 1 mile of station 8 minutes or less, add 2 minutes every mile after) Qualifying Alarms: 64mo, 462yr, Target met: mo 45 (71%) yr 328 (71%), Target not met: mo 19 (29%) yr 134 (29%)
Losses: Two building fires caused $59,500 in losses, some contents inside a shop fire resulted in $10,000 in loss while a mobile home fire resulted in $49,500 in loss of the building and contents. The three brush fires last month were all stopped at less than an acre, 50’x50’, 100’x100’ and 3’x30’ which is reported as less than half an acre and not recorded.
Strategic Plan:
We held our first Committee meeting September 22nd. Since that meeting I have received some feedback on the changes in the plan. I am working on updating the plan with all the changes to get it out to the Committee a couple weeks before our October 27th meeting.
Logistics:
I have started working on specifications for the new Engine 51 as well as upgrading Air 50 to give us accurate numbers for the 2021 budget.
Department Training and Safety: By Captain Jim Johnston
September Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill / Open House Filming, OTEP Modules 5 & 6, Multi Company Ops (filming for Virtual Open House), Relay Pumping Operations, and Equipment Scramble.
Developed the October Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill / 4th Quarter SCBA Quarterly, OTEP Workshop B & C, MCO (51 & 53 with Highland), Extrication Tools (52 & 54), & Search and Rescue.
The Safety and Training Committee has met for the 3rd quarter.
2020 Recruit Class update: Currently we are almost done with the required chapters in the textbook and have conducted four practical days – PPE & SCBA work, Fire Streams and Water Supply, Search and Rescue, Ladders and Ventilation.
Limited external training is starting to open back up.
Fire Prevention/Public Education: By Captain Johnston
At this time all in-person Prevention and Public Education opportunities have been put on hold. We will be putting messages on the Reader Boards and on Social Media.
Recruitment & Retention: By LT Chris Lyons
I sent out our member availability survey via ISpy and have the results from that. I also pulled the report calls and call attendance for everything Monday-Friday from the hours of 0600-1800. We will be using this information to create a report that shows the number of members available in comparison to the number of members that respond to calls during that time.
I have started receiving applications for the next round of hiring. I will be starting the main recruitment cycle in January with a focus on Stations 53 and 54. We will be using the same hiring style that we used this year and will be conducting the physical test and interviews on the same day. I believe this style is the best use of time for both the applicants and the members as we are already here and can conduct both portions. The only addition to this year will be a brief class for the members that are going to assist, this class will set the expectation for both processes that way all of the proctors and interviewers are on the same page and provide the exact same service to all candidates.
Futures Program / Cadet Program: By LT Chris Lyons
In the month of September, myself and the class have been working to become more familiar with the IFSTA Resource 1 program. The program is well constructed and has many benefits for both students and instructors. The students completed the IS-100, 200, 700 and 800, as well as all of Chapter 1. Moving forward, we will no longer be meeting via Zoom, as I have set up the online classroom that IFSTA offers. Using the online classroom will allow me to have the same video capabilities as I do with Zoom, with the added feature of being able to run my power points and log into the student’s profile if they are having any issues. It appears that the students will not be back to an “in class” model until the end of November, and that will still be modified. The modified or “Hybrid” classroom will have half of the students in class Monday and Thursday, then the other half on Tuesday and Friday.
Grants:
Through the public assistance for Covid-19 we have submitted a request for $32,554.95, this includes our Aeroclave decon unit, half mask respirators, wildland face shields and various disinfectants as well as response to EMS calls for Covid-19. This funding source is planned to remain open the rest of 2020, we continue to track calls and expenses related to Covid-19 for reimbursement.
Also, we submitted paperwork to receive our AFG-Covid grant funding totaling $4,499.11 which covers PPE expenses we had at the start of the virus. AFG is doing a second round of grant funding for Covid however we haven’t had many expenses to apply for since we were able to get PPE from Emergency Management.
The DNR has opened grants for surplus trucks and they have a few of interest we plan to apply for, because we received one last year, we will not be a high priority but will still apply.
We continue to work on reimbursement for the Ahtanum Ridge fire known as the North Brownstown III incident. We are eligible to be reimbursed for all equipment and personnel costs in addition to a pot of grant money Emergency Management will receive, we have requested backup generators for Station 52, 53 and 54 on that grant.
Interlocal:
Yakima has provided an updated dispatch contract for 2021 and 2022. The significant changes to the contract for 2021 is using CPI to adjust the cost of dispatch we go from paying $54.84/call to $57.28. In 2022 they will use whichever is higher between CPI and their collective bargaining agreement but cap the CBA at 3.5%.
I have received a letter from Yakima County regarding the fence we constructed at Station 53. I am currently researching a solution to the issue with the removal of the arborvitae.
Good of the Order:
Our Open House video is live with a link on our website and a link sent out through Facebook. The limit on public meetings has been extended to November 9th.
Respectfully,
Nathan Craig
Fire Chief