Chief's Monthly Report
Fire Department
Monthly Progress Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District 12
For the Meeting of October 10, 2017
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: October 6, 2017
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 54 Firefighter Will Savage moved out of District and resigned his positon. Station 54 Firefighter Marnie Stephens has been unable to participate over the past year and has been dropped from the Department due to inactivity.
Starting October we have 84 volunteers, 65 in service for combat firefighting, 10 in service for support and 9 out of service on leave. Our total number of members with volunteers, staff and Commissioners is 94 members.
Interlocal:
The Yakima County Fire Chiefs unanimously approved recommending a change to the EMS levy distribution to ensure all agencies receive at a minimum 80% of the funds generated in their jurisdiction. This recommendation will be brought to the County Fire Commissioners and Mayors Association before forwarding to the EMS Admin Board to receive approval from the County Commissioners.
Budget/Finance: By Officer Boisselle
The 2018 Budget is on tonight’s agenda. We will review the preliminary budget and projected revenue.
Department Training and Safety: By Captain Jim Johnston
September Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Modules 5 & 6, Circuit Drill, and Relay Pumping Operations.
Developed October Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Workshop C, District Open House, and Salvage Tarps.
On September 24th Lt Scott Wellner, FF Mandy Wellner, and myself represented our Department at a Firefighter Stairclimb in Portland, OR to benefit Cystic Fibrosis.
On September 26th and 27th I attended a FEMA Class on Public Information Officer training. There were 29 people in attendance from all over the state representing various organizations.
Logistics:
Station 53 asphalt was replaced October 5th, the parking stops and lines will be installed soon. The new Rescue 54 (re-chassis) was put in service this past month at Station 54. Stripe Rite has been hired to fill asphalt cracks at Station 51 and 54 this month and the Duty Crew has been re-painting backing lines at all stations in preparation for our open house. Engine 53’s front discharge valve was installed by Cascade Fire, this was a budget item.
I met with Yakima County Roads regarding the flooding at Station 54 the past couple years and reviewed some options with them. Captain Biddick and I have agreed this year to try building a snow bank along the North Fork Road to keep flood water out of the Station, if this does not work we will implement one of the ideas discussed with the County.
Brush 251 has had the pump and boxes removed and is in service as a plow/utility truck until next spring.
Upcoming items to finish in 2017 are pump testing all engines, installing the port-a-tank on Tender 53 and repairing the ladder rack on Tender 52.
The specifications for the new rescue 52 should be finished this week and be ready to go out to bid, hopefully we can finish this project in 2017, however it may go into 2018.
Operations:
In September there were a total of 59 incidents in District (6 fires, 37 EMS, 5 service calls, 5 false alarms and 6 good intents), 55 of those incidents were handled by our personnel.
Incidents: YTD
Station 51 12 115
Station 52 17 122
Station 53 1 49
Station 54 4 36
Station 50 21 194
Yakima 4 46
YTD 562
Ambulance only 2 25
Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond) Automatic Aid Given
From Highland 0 To Highland 4
From Yakima 0 To Yakima 2
From Gleed 0
YTD 14 YTD 39
Mutual Aid Received 0 Mutual Aid Given 1 YTD 1 YTD 29
Recruitment & Retention: By LT Chris Lyons
The signs have been installed at Stations 53 and 54 and are proudly displaying our message promoting the open house as well as our recruitment message. I attached numbers on the signs in relation to the station the sign is posted at, as well as our web address. The response from other members of the Department regarding the signs has been positive and they believe that they will do well getting out message out and also look good at the Stations.
To date 16 people have turned in applications for the Department and I am anticipating more with the open house.
I have selected a company to use for the LED sign that will be installed at Station 51 and I am also going to have them take a look at Station 52 to what we can do to put an elevated sign there.
The new structure gear that we ordered was delivered to the members and placed in service, I will be looking to schedule the next sizing at the beginning of 2018.
CTE Program / Cadet Program: By LT Chris Lyons
September was a very busy and productive month for the students. The Association held the annual potato feed and a number of students in the high school class assisted in the event. We have been very active out on the training grounds working on team building, communication and SCBA skills. As far as the book work portion of the class we covered three chapters in the month of September. We are already ahead of where we were this time last year and I believe that is due to the great weather we have been having. The students have been very eager to assist with Department functions and events just to have the opportunity to meet the members and build the relationships with our firefighters as well as our community. I have thirteen of the twenty students that have signed up to assist with the Haunted FireHouse this year.
Fire Prevention / Public Education: By Captain Jim Johnston
On September 11th a group of Cub Scouts came for a presentation of the Fire Service. I prepared a Powerpoint that focused on the history of the United States Fire Service starting from the colonial times to modern day. After the presentation I allowed time for questions and answers then conducted a Station tour for the group.
On September 21st I attended an after hour meeting with the Youth Firesetters Coalition; the group is made up of local fire agencies, area school counselors, law enforcement, and legal representatives. We discussed an upcoming academy that is geared to educate kids and their parents on the ramifications of arson fires, the kids involved in the class have already committed acts of arson.
On September 29th our Department manned the Fire Prevention Booth at the Central Washington Fair. Lt Lyons, FF Parrish, and myself manned the booth from 11:30 to 21:30, Lt’s Scully and Haubrich assisted us from noon till 17:00 followed by Lt James and Cadet Hanses from 17:00 to 21:30. We fielded and answered many questions from fairgoers about our Department and prevention topics.
Grants:
October 6th we were notified we were not selected for our FEMA AFG equipment grant for wildland gear, as late as it is in the year typically this means we scored high enough on our application to receive funding, however the money ran out before they got to our score.
Good of the Order:
October 11th is our open house/recruitment drive for all stations. We will be cooking hot dogs, handing out fire prevention information, applications and have several activities for kids and adults.
October 13th is the Association Haunted FireHouse at Station 51.
This past month we were awarded first place in the Sunfair Parade for motorized fire engines with Brush 51 and Engine 52 and recognized by the Yakima Herald Republic Readers’ Choice as “Best Firefighter”.
Recently I met with Eric Cunningham from Washington Survey and Ratings Bureau to set a date for our WSRB re-rating in 2018, at this time we are scheduled for June of next year.
Nathan Craig, Fire Chief