Chief's Monthly Report
Fire Department
Monthly Progress Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District
12
For the Meeting of May 10th,
2022
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: May 4,
2022
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
lost one firefighter at Station 51 due to moving out of state.
Starting
May, our total on call Members is 73. We
have two on leave and two on light duty and 11 for support leaving 58
operational on call Members. Including
our four firefighters, 4 Admin and 3 Commissioners our total personnel is 84.
Interlocal:
The Wildfire Ready
Neighbors press conference is scheduled for 10:30 on May 12th at
Falcon Ridge and will officially kick off our effort for 2022. We will use grant funding to purchase 5
tablets and pay the cost of our Members to perform home risk assessments.
Valley Fire held an Upper
Valley User Group meeting last month to update us on any issues. There have been some issues with call
transfers going to the wrong agency as well as run card issues with
Spillman. A better EMD system should
reduce some issues. Valley Fire is
researching other CAD systems that are more fire/EMS based than Spillman with
Premier 1 being reviewed last month.
The EMS levy renewal
committee is holding monthly meetings and looking for community members to join
the effort.
Recruitment
and Retention: By DC
Jim Johnston
We started advertising for the June
hiring period in April. The stations
have banners and a message on the digital screen at Station 51, there is also a
flyer at the high school for the Cadet program. Applications are due May 31st.
A new Retention Survey has been
created; we will be putting this on Survey Monkey for our Members to complete.
Department Training and
Safety: By
DC Jim Johnston
April Drills included: Equipment
Check / Station Drill / 2nd Quarter SCBA Quarterly, OTEP Module 2 –
Respiratory Emergencies, Annual Wildland Refresher, Wildland Pumps and Porta
Tanks.
Developed the May Drill Schedule:
Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Workshop B – Respiratory Emergencies,
Water Supply & Hose Handling, Drafting.
I have scheduled a Live Fire night on May 18th for the five
lateral hires from February.
On April 15th I attended a
hazmat class called Above the Line / Below the Line at the City of Yakima Fire
Department. The class was a tactical class
that expanded on quick predictions based on the chemical substance utilizing
flip charts.
On April 21st Dan
Boisselle, Mike Parrish, and myself attended a battery class in Pasco. This class covered all types of batteries
with a heavy emphasis on Lithium-Ion batteries and their inherent problems.
We hosted a fireground tactics class
(Decision Making for Initial Company Operations) over the weekend of April 23rd
and 24th. The class was well
attended with 30 students, I have heard several positive comments on the
class. I am also in the process of
trying to get a Leadership Class brought in in the Fall.
Budget/Finance: By Officer Boisselle
I have submitted the annual WFCA Wage & Benefit
survey. We should receive statewide
compiled data by August/September.
I have received a request from the State Auditor
for various 2019-2021 financial downloads and information. The request does not site this information is
for our upcoming audit, but I assume it is and we will be notified soon of the
timeline for our 2019-2021 audit.
On track for having our annual State Financial
report submitted by the May 27th due date.
Fire Prevention/Public Education: By Officer Boisselle
We took the EDITH House to our three elementary
schools the week of April 18th. Nine classes total were instructed
for the 2nd graders, teaching them home escape planning and various
home safety tips. Thanks to Captain Haubrich for taking the lead and his help
shuttling the house around.
A homeschool group of 42 kids visited the station
on April 19th. We split them up into groups according to age and
took them through the EDITH House, gave them a tour of the trucks and of the
station. The older kids had lots of
questions, as did the parents.
On May 19th from 5pm to 7pm each of our
stations will be open for the hands-on instruction of the STOP THE BLEED
program. The program is designed to
teach three to assist in bleeding control, from severe bleeding to minor bleeding. We will have two trained members at each
station instructing the hands-on skills. If we have enough volunteers, we will
also facilitate a hands-only CPR instruction.
We have a Safe Sitter class scheduled for June 23rd
and June 24th.
I have submitted a $500 grant for bike helmets
through the State Fire Chiefs.
Issue II of 2022 newsletter is finalized and out
for mailing.
Operations:
Last
month there were a total of 70 alarms in District, 59 we responded to, 10
ambulance only, and 1 Yakima auto aid.
Incidents: YTD Incidents
by Zone YTD Zone
Station 51 13 49 20 76 (29%)
Station 52 12 49 23
97 (37%)
Station 53 8 34 12 63 (24%)
Station 54 1 17 4 25 (10%)
Station 50 25 (1 duty) 112
Yakima 1 2
Ambulance Only 10 36
Total 299
Incident
Type: Month Type YTD
Fire 8 5
bldg (3MA), 4 vegetation (1MA) 21
EMS 44 40 EMS, 4 MVC 190
Hazardous
Condition 9 8 power problem, 1 structural compromise 12
Service
Call 8 8 assist invalid 19
Good
Intent 0 8
False
Alarm 1 1 AFA 11
Action
Taken: Month Type YTD
Canceled enroute 1 1
EMS 17
Extinguishment 13 6
poles, 4 bldg (2MA), 3 veg (1MA) 21
Provide
BLS 42 198
Assist
Invalid 8 24
Investigate 5 1 MVC, 1 AFA, 2 electrical, 1 structural dmg 29
Other 1 Standby 8
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 2 YTD 6
Mutual
Aid Received 0 Mutual Aid
Given 3 (2 Yak, 1 Dist 5)
YTD 0 YTD 5
We had 8 power pole fires last month in addition to
a pumphouse fire that caused $2500 in loss and a brush fire that extended to a
detached shop that resulted in $170,000 in loss. The cause of the brush fire is under
investigation by the fire marshal’s office.
Response Times: (Target= within
1 mile of station 8 minutes or less, add 2 minutes every mile after) Qualifying
Alarms: 37mo, 184yr, Target met: mo 28 (76%) yr 130 (71%), Target not met: mo 9
(24%) yr 54 (29%).
Logistics:
All our portable radios are in service, we continue
to refine the programming and have ordered the cable and software necessary to
make changes in house. All mobile radios
have been installed with exception of our engines; we are waiting on the parts
to utilize the dual head on the pump panel.
The one-year warranty for Station 51 Phase II is
coming up. I contacted TW Clark with a list of items for repair, the
electricians have already been through the building and the project
superintendent will be on site this month to finish the checklist.
Grants:
We submitted a DNR HB1168
Wildfire Ready grant to cover the cost of 5 tablets to use for home wildfire
inspections and reimburse the District for each home we inspect during the program;
the total funding is $15,836 and is for reimbursement of 100 home site
inspections.
I have contacted our
electrician to update our prices for backup power at Station 52 and 53 to
submit for a County ARPA grant by mid-June.
We are reconfiguring Station 52’s backup power due to all heat in the
building being electrical, if we were to install a generator that runs the
whole building it would have to be enormous, at this time we are selecting
critical infrastructure to keep the station running but not serve as an
emergency shelter.
Good of the
Order:
The Association egg hunt was a success
even though the weather did not cooperate.
The Association is hosting a flea
market May 7th on the grounds of Station 51.
Past Commissioner George Glessner’s
memorial service will be in the Training Center on May 14th at 11am.
The next Commissioners quarterly
meeting is in Zillah on May 19th.
Respectfully,
Nathan Craig
Fire Chief