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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018 Fire Department Annual Report Filed in Clerk's Office /-- Sp U T. FEB 01 2019 a • KAREEMAH FOWLER ERW � �\:__N,_ CITY CLERK,SOUTH BEND, D,IN�S BENS) South Bend Fire Department Annual Report for 2018 1. Emergency response. The SBFD responded to over 20,000 emergency calls for service. As an all-hazards response agency,the Department provided service for fire suppression, EMS response,water rescue, hazardous materials mitigation, specialized rescue, and many other response types.This included the record flooding that occurred in the Spring of 2018 which necessitated the rescue of trapped citizens,mutual aid response to other flooded counties, and assisting the EMA, Red Cross, and FEMA in mitigating response and recovery for thousands of people affected by the flooding in St. Joseph County and the area. This activity falls in line with the Mayor's mission of making the basics easy. The Fire Department's competence, compassion,professionalism, and focus on service allow the Public to have confidence that their needs will be met whenever they call 911 for service.The response capability of the SBFD makes this a safer city in which to live, work, and play. __� �� di!Oil Vs . : s;.. 1 '41 ' 4 g- it , -.I' 4 - ......t' . .' III 4 7111" c , b A A 0 AL ' 44 , , s, , . . ..... , ,.. ,,,, .d am+ E .: __ 2. Recruitment,testing,and hiring. Active recruitment has continued by means of the South Bend Fire Department Recruitment Team.The team has hosted multiple Public Safety job fairs and continued to attend other recruitment events and opportunities, such as visiting schools, colleges, and vocational centers with a public safety focus.Additionally, the team has conducted outreach in diverse areas of our community with a focus on minority, female,and veteran recruitment. During the course of 2018, the Department hosted testing for applicants that will comprise the 2019-20 hiring list. The hiring list includes 23%minority applicants. During 2018,the Department swore on a total of 17 new firefighters. This group consisted of 5 (29%)minority,4 (24%) female, and 4 (24%)veteran recruits.The recruitment team has also worked with the third-party vendor which provides the department testing(written and interview)to rework the testing process to minimize the effects of disparate impact to any specific demographic group while not reducing standards for prospective applicants.With improving diversity within the Department one of the key goals of the Administration, outreach activities have produced positive inclusion numbers for hiring new firefighters since 2012. Since then,the Department has hired 57 new firefighters,with 14%being female, 18%being veterans, 9%being African American, and 7%being Latino. Each of these demographic categories show improvements over recruitment results from 1993-2011. wiTimmignini111. reP71 r 1 ."*".."111111111.1.11.1111117.1S T - II' • ����� rt ���C /'N AMY. <ffb ,.%Ply ..-..,..j.3, 4y: - era ! u ° IP ! ' tai ,� t ` -. e • • • I •• f ' • — ,i ill i ". i ''' 3. Recruit training and High School Fire Academy. The Fire Department continues to provide a regional recruit academy which has included recruits from the SBFD along with recruits from LaPorte and Michigan City. 2 recruit academies were completed in 2018.This gives the SBFD greater flexibility in providing recruit training and allows the department to be able to create a revenue stream to help offset the costs of recruit 1 training. In addition to the recruit academy, a partnership was developed with the South Bend Community Schools and Ivy Tech to create a dual-credit,co-op program for high school students. This class has continued and has expanded to include EMT training for a greater number of high school students in the South Bend Schools. Currently,there are 11 students enrolled in the Junior year program and 15 in the Senior year program. As this program targets 11th and 12th grade students, it is a long-term recruiting project. In fact,2 individuals on the current SBFD hiring list are graduates of this program. The majority of students taking part in the program have been African-American, Latino,or female, and fits well with the above stated objectives of improving diversity and inclusion. 4. Training. In order to ensure the members of the department provide service at the high level expected by our citizens,it is imperative that members of the SBFD operate in a culture of constant improvement. Using the training resources available to all members of the Department ensures that we remain safe when responding to situations which are inherently dangerous while providing necessary response to calls for service in a solutions-oriented manner.Having access to a state-the-art training center, which was built and opened in 2014,provides our firefighters with a place to safely practice their occupational skills. Examples of training evolutions that were performed in 2018 include ventilation,hose line deployment, residential fire operations, SCBA confidence courses,and several state certification courses(Fire Officer II,Fire Inspector I, Driver-Operator/Pumper, Driver-Operator/Aerial, Safety Officer, and more).Thousands of EMS training hours were logged in 2018,to include pediatrics,cardiac emergencies,and trauma response. Additionally,the Department trained all members in the Fireground Survival Course for which the Department hosted a Train the Trainer course in 2017.This program provides firefighters with self-rescue tools and techniques for their own survival in hazardous conditions. Members of the SBFD logged 67,304 hours of training during the year for 2018. This was an increase of 12,017 hours over totals from 2017. This culture of training is in line with the City's demand for excellence and allows members of the SBFD to innovate in the way they perform the functions of their jobs. 5. Community Risk Reduction. The SBFD Fire Prevention Bureau provided hundreds of hours of public education on fire prevention and gave out thousands of pieces of prevention materials. Members of the Department conducted multiple smoke alarm blitzes in different neighborhoods, installing 1,663 smoke alarms, 19 hearing-impaired smoke alarms, 182 carbon monoxide alarms,and 34 combination alarms. Public Education Officers provided hundreds of contact hours with thousands of local children to stress the importance of fire prevention in their homes and schools.The Fire Inspection Division performed over 3000 inspections and over 130 hours of fire drill and fire evacuation planning for local businesses and commercial buildings to include both high rise and multi-tenant residential buildings.This activity is necessary to ensure the safety of citizens in the community and to ensure that property owners are in compliance with codes to minimize potential hazards to those that live,work, and play in the city.The Fire Investigation Division investigated 140 structure fires in 2018. This is down from 155 in 2017.Total structure fires have remained relatively the same over the past five years. In spite of this,property losses from those fires have decreased from a total of$3,068,867 in 2014,with a decrease each year,down to $1,373,075 in 2017.This is a product of increased training,both quantitatively and qualitatively, and increased, focused community risk reduction activities.The SBFD Fire Prevention Bureau will continue to provide programming and education in risk reduction throughout the community. Prevention measures and inspections along with strong codes make the City safer for the residents. 6. Services. The SBFD built and opened a new Fire Station 4 on North Olive Street in June of 2018. This station was built to LEED specifications and was designed to provide cancer risk reduction and improved health and wellness benefits for the firefighters stationed there. Examples of those benefits are an expanded weight/fitness room and zone design that isolates contaminated air, equipment, and vehicles from the living quarters in the station.The Department began construction of-a new Station 9 on the east side of the city which will also be a LEED certified building with many of the same features of Station 4.One of the items unique to Station 9 is the extra apparatus bay in which the Department will house a boat truck designed to respond to water rescue emergencies due to the close proximity to the boat ramp at Memorial Park. Updates were made to the vehicle exhaust systems at Stations 1, 2, and 9 to reduce cancer risk at those stations from vehicle exhaust.New gear extractors (turn-out gear washers) installed at station 10 and 11 to increase our capacity to wash turn-out gear to further reduce cancer risk among our employees. Development of a peer support group for critical incident debriefings to help combat the effects of PTSD on the Fire Department personnel was performed. The Department took delivery of two new pumper trucks replacing old vehicles that were over 20 years old. MI Mail 'V Ili ARIIIii I i — i.1 i1i 1..1_-1,, h �' ..� a+ 7. Special Operations. The SBFD special operations teams include the Hazmat, dive, swiftwater rescue,and technical rescue teams.Trainers from the Hazmat team provided an 80 hour hazmat technician course in order to provide this level of certification for an additional 6 personnel. The river rescue trainers provided 4,week-long schools in 2018 for personnel from all throughout the region. These 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.