2018 Fire Department Annual Report

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schools typically host 35 students from outside the area and positively impact the hotel and restaurants in the downtown area. Members of the swiftwater rescue team also helped coordinate the annual International Association of Water Rescue Professionals Conference at the Century Center. Over 300 water rescue professionals from around the world attended. This conference will be held in South Bend again in June 2019 with the intention of expanding the offerings and increasing the size of the conference. A group of 8 South Bend Firefighters deployed to North Carolina as part of a regional response to assist North Carolina first responders before, during, and after landfall of Hurricane Florence. These individuals were gone for a 2-week deployment and helped rescue hundreds of people in the flood zones and evacuate more in areas that received record amounts of flooding.This team also rescued over 40 dogs and other pets while on deployment. Members of the SBFD Technical Rescue Team continued to add to training and response capabilities through further certification training in 2018. Excellence,innovation, and empowerment all pertain to our special operations teams. 8. Emergency Medical Services. EMS constitutes the majority of the call volume for which the SBFD receives calls for service. In order to stay on the cutting edge of the service the department provides, it is important to study alternative methods of providing that service.The department provided training for one paramedic to pilot a community paramedicine program to help frequent users of the EMS system find a medical home. This program was piloted in 2017-18 and was made a permanent service that the Department provides.There has been tremendous success in pairing citizens in need of services with the appropriate medical home and other services as needed. This diverts people with non-emergent needs to the right resources and keeps them from misusing the 911 system and emergency rooms at local hospitals. In doing so, 911 first responders are available more of the time for real emergencies. Created and agreed to an MOU to begin a new response delivery system which includes the use of paramedic chase cars.This program allows the Department use the triage system purchased by the PSAP to send the appropriate resources to the right calls every time. The system was deployed in February of 2019. SBFD members were involved in the mass casualty drill held at the airport in order to ensure that department team members are prepared for a disaster response.This embodies excellence, good government, and includes keeping the basics easy for citizens. 9. Leadership Development. The SBFD piloted an Officer Development Program in 2018 in which officers attended a 12- week program that included state certification in Safety Officer,Fire Officer II, and Fire Inspector I. The program also included a course of leadership study that was implemented by the US Navy and exercises included assimilating the lessons learned to the fire department.This program was a success and with feedback from participants and a few small tweaks to the program, it will be a regular program offered to leadership at the SBFD. 10. Drone Team. The SBFD created,certified, and implemented a drone team to make use of unmanned aerial devices for large area search and rescue, investigations, fire inspections, scene overwatch, and many other uses in the fire service.This program was used as the pilot for the City and included working with the IT and Innovation Departments to create City policy on the use of drones for City services.The South Bend Fire Department is proud to innovate on behalf of the City and looks for opportunities to further cooperate with other departments to find solutions to optimizing services.