2005 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EASTON FIRE &
RESCUE DEPARTMENT
To
The Honorable Board of Selectmen:
I respectfully submit the annual report of the Easton Fire &
Rescue Department for the year 2005.
OPERATIONS
2005 was another busy year for the Easton Fire Department. The
department responded to a total of 3133 incidents in 2005.
A total of 5847 pieces of apparatus were utilized to handle those
incidents. The department
responded to 45 fires in structures, 27 brush fires, 14 vehicle fires, and 66
other types of fires. The
department also responded to 1144 medical emergencies and 433 automobile
accidents. A total of 1133
patients were transported to local hospitals.
The remainder of the responses can be categorized as either
investigations of potentially hazardous situations or public service calls.
Early in 2005, two new firefighter / paramedics joined the Easton Fire
Department. Stephen Gellman and
Aaron Fisher were appointed to fill an existing vacancy as well as an opening
created by the retirement of long-time Easton Firefighter Raymond Phillips.
The newly hired firefighters successfully completed the Massachusetts
Firefighting Academy Recruit Training Program.
The department is currently staffed with 34 uniformed personnel. Once
again I must emphasize that we are
under-staffed for a department that is required to cover
29.4 square miles and protect approximately 24,000 residents.
It is getting increasingly difficult to handle the escalating demands
for service with the very limited on-duty staffing.
The incidence of multiple emergency calls taking place simultaneously
increases each year as the town continues to grow.
Citizens are being forced to wait for dangerously long periods of time
for the arrival of emergency vehicles because the on-duty personnel are
committed to other calls. Even
with the addition of new personnel, we still have one unfilled vacancy (the
Deputy Chief’s position that was lost through attrition in January of 2002).
Our current staffing level remains below what it was back in the late
1980s (35 personnel). The Fire
Department budget has also suffered major reductions in the salary overtime
accounts over the past several years ($140,000 in fiscal year 2002 and $76,000
in fiscal year 2005). As a result
of the staffing shortage, one of our 3 fire stations (Station # 2 on
Depot St.
) had to be closed for a considerable amount of time during the year (18% of
the time). It was closed for 88
day time shifts and 43 night time shifts.
Unfortunately this trend will continue until additional staffing can be
hired. Closing a station is a
dangerous practice for several reasons. First
of all, due to the size of the town and the poor road networking system (as
pointed out by the Fire Study conducted by consultants in 1997.), three
stations are needed to provide adequate coverage.
With a station closed, the response times increase.
In an emergency situation time can be a critical factor in determining
the outcome of that situation. The
closing of the
Central
Street
Bridge
will further negatively impact response times to and from that area of town.
Secondly, the reason a station is closed is due to insufficient on-duty
personnel to man the apparatus. We
man our apparatus with only 2 firefighters (far below the accepted minimum
national standard of 4). With
insufficient staffing, the safety of the personnel responding to the needs of
the community is jeopardized. Closing
a station also hinders our ability to respond to multiple calls.
As mentioned above, with increasing frequency there are times when all
available on-duty personnel are committed to one call leaving no one available
to respond to the next incident. We
do have a method in place to call back off-duty personnel, but the number of
call back personnel is minimal and unpredictable.
We are forced to rely on mutual aid apparatus to respond to calls in
our own town. Mutual aid is a
vital part of any emergency response system, but the response times can be
lengthy.
To emphasize how critical the situation has become, in 2005 Easton Fire
Department apparatus (fire trucks and ambulances) responded on mutual aid to
assist all our surrounding communities 79 times.
Yet we had to call apparatus in from other communities 123 times to
assist us. There were 1133
patients transported to area hospitals last year.
172 of those patients were transported by out of town ambulances.
Not only were there delays in providing emergency service waiting for
the mutual aid ambulances to arrive, but there was also a loss of revenue to
the Town of
Easton
(the transporting ambulance bills for services).
From the chart below, you can see that each year we are increasingly
relying on our neighboring communities to provide the services we cannot
provide with current staffing levels.
Patients transported by mutual aid ambulances
1997
= 62 or 6.9%
1998
= 68 or 7.7%
1999
= 80 or 9.4%
2000 = 116 or 10.3%
2001 = 103 or 10.2%
2002 = 125 or 12.7%
2003
= 137 or 14%
2004
= 147 or 14%
2005 = 172 or 15%
Mutual aid is a concept that
has been utilized by the fire service for over a century.
It is a system designed to help every city and town deal with those unusual
incidents that a community cannot handle on their own.
After the events of September 11, 2001 local fire and police
departments are expected to be the “first line of defense” against
terrorist activities and events involving weapons of mass destruction.
However with current staffing levels, we must rely on mutual aid just
the handle the day-to-day routine calls. With
all neighboring cities and towns experiencing financial difficulties, mutual
aid may not be as reliable as it has been in the past.
This will further reduce our ability to provide the emergency services
expected and demanded by the citizens of
Easton
.
It must be noted at this time that during the period from May 5, 2005
until June 23, 2005 the Department of Public Health did not allow our
paramedics to practice at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) level.
In late March, inspectors from the DPH Office of Emergency Medical
Services found some deficiencies in our ALS system.
The deficiencies noted have been corrected.
Our full ALS Ambulance license was restored on June 23rd for
a provisional 6-month period. Inspectors
returned in the fall to conduct a follow-up inspection.
They found that all the deficiencies had been corrected and our
ambulance service was operating as a “model program”.
During the time period we were without the ALS portion of our license,
we still responded to all medical emergencies.
Even though we relied on mutual aid ALS ambulances to transport
patients requiring ALS treatment (33%), we still transported 67% of the
patients. On December 31,
2005 our ambulance license was renewed for a full year at the ALS level.
We are no longer on provisional status.
TRAINING AND EDUCATION
Firefighting and emergency medical training are vital to ensuring that
the Easton Fire Department is able to respond effectively and efficiently to
the many calls for assistance that we receive.
Most of the training is conducted “in-service” while the personnel
are on duty, but many members take advantage of training and educational
opportunities on their own “off-duty” time.
Captain James Walsh is the department’s training officer and
coordinates the training activities. We
frequently work directly with the instructors and training staff of the
Department of Fire Services Massachusetts Firefighting Academy as well as
training instructors from surrounding communities.
This ensures that firefighting practices and procedures keep pace with
new advances in technology and tactics.
Firefighter / Paramedic Timothy Vamosi completed a Hazardous Materials
training program and is now certified at the Hazardous Materials Technician
level. This extensive training
will not only serve the citizens of
Easton
, but will enable him to join the State’s District # 1 Hazardous Materials
Response Team sometime in the future
On an annual basis all EMTs, from the basic level to the paramedic
level, are required to complete many hours of continuing education in order to
improve their ability to deliver high quality medical care.
Our EMS Training Coordinator FF / Paramedic Brendan McCarthy and
Advanced Life Support coordinator FF / Paramedic Evan Malone conduct most of
the medical training for department members along with offering CPR and
first-aid training to various groups in the community.
Doctor Henry Crowley has been contracted to be our ambulance service
medical director and is committed to providing oversight over the entire
medical delivery system. He will
also conduct monthly training sessions for all of our medical personnel.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND FIRE PREVENTION
The
most important function of any Fire Department is to prevent the occurrence of
situations that produce injury, death, destruction to property or negatively
impact our environment. We
try to accomplish this through our Public Education and Fire Prevention
division.
The S.A.F.E. (Student Awareness of Fire Education) Program is now in its
11th year. This program
is a cooperative effort between firefighters, school principals, teachers, and
students. The program was
originally developed and funded through a state grant.
This year, due to cuts in the state’s budget, the grant funding was
significantly less then what was received in previous years.
However, I am very proud to say that this extremely important and
successful program was presented to elementary school students, all though on
a “scaled back” manner through the determined efforts of Captain Dave
Beals, FF Larry Blye and FF Chris Mills.
We were successful in obtaining grant funding for an additional year.
The educational program has been expanded slightly to include
presentations to senior citizens and other civic groups.
We hope the program continues to grow in the future.
The demands on the Fire Prevention office are continuing to increase.
A great deal of new construction is taking place in
Easton
at this time. Captain John Howard
is the department’s fire prevention officer.
He is responsible for reviewing the construction plans for all new
buildings to ensure they meet the ever-changing fire codes.
He is also responsible for conducting hundreds of inspections
throughout the year. In addition
to the annual inspection of all businesses licensed by the town, all schools
and nursing homes were inspected.
New regulations contained in MGL Chapter 304 went into effect this year.
The new law regulates certain existing places of assembly with
occupancies of 100 or more people. It
also regulates the construction of new occupancies of 50 or more people.
The new regulations require that more detailed inspections be conducted
by both the fire and building departments.
New regulations are being developed that will require the installation
of carbon monoxide detectors in various occupancies.
The new regulations will go into effect on March 31, 2006.
FIRE ALARM
Captain James Walsh and FF William Wolffe performed repairs and
maintenance procedures to the municipal fire alarm system.
Several new radio activated fire alarm boxes were installed during the
year. Master alarm boxes activated
by a building’s internal fire alarm system were installed at the following
locations;
Highland
Plaza
, Walgreens, Mobil Express,
Preston Place
, and
Oliver
Ames
High School
.
APPARATUS AND STATIONS
A new pumping engine (Engine # 5) was placed in service in January.
This new truck replaced a 1974 Maxim pumper that broke down in April of
2003.
A 1992 Emergency-One pumping engine (Engine # 1) was refurbished by
Greenwood Emergency Vehicles in October and placed back in service.
This vehicle should serve the town well for another 10 years.
On
February 5, 2005 we received word from Congressman Stephen Lynch that our “2004
Assistance to Firefighters” Grant application had been approved.
We were awarded a federal grant in the amount of $250,000 to purchase a
new pumping engine. The federal
government portion of the grant is in the amount of $225,000 (90%).
Under the grant program the Town of
Easton
is responsible for the remaining $25,000 (10%).
At the annual town meeting in May 2005, voters approved the $25,000.
The bid to manufacture the new truck was awarded to
Emergency-One. We are expecting
delivery around mid-April 2006. The
new engine will replace a 1981 pumping engine (Engine # 4) that is in
extremely poor condition.
Ambulance # 2, a 1999 Horton, is starting to show signs of 6-years worth
of wear and tear. It currently has
just under 80,000 road miles on it. It
should be replaced in fiscal year 2007.
Fire Station # 2 on
Depot Street
, our oldest station, is in need of repairs or replacement.
This station was built in 1934 under a Federal WPA project.
The Fire Study committee concluded that a three-station configuration
is necessary to adequately cover the Town.
Of our three stations, the
Depot Street
station is most ideally located. It
offers immediate access to the Town’s only major east / west connector
(Route 123) and is closest to our main north / south connector (Route 138).
The Town will face some financially difficult years in the near future.
But the Town must decide to either make some major repairs to the
present Depot Street Station or build a new building.
PERSONNEL
As mentioned earlier, 2 new firefighter / paramedics (Stephen Gellman
and Aaron Fisher) were appointed in February.
They are ready to serve the Town of
Easton
and we hope they have very successful and safe careers with the Easton Fire
Department.
In January 2005, Firefighter Raymond Phillips retired.
He served the department and community in a very admirable and
professional manner for the past 25 years.
His experience and expertise as a firefighter and emergency medical
technician will be missed. We wish
him the best for a long and healthy retirement.
The members of the Easton Fire & Rescue Department continue to
donate many hours of their own time in order to ensure that the department
responds efficiently to the needs of the community.
I would like to thank all of them for their commitment to this effort.
Mission
Statement:
“The Easton Fire & Rescue
Department is committed to protecting the people, property, and environment
within our community. We will be
responsive to the needs of our citizens by providing rapid, professional,
humanitarian services essential to the health, safety, and well being of the
community. We will accomplish our
mission through fire prevention, fire safety awareness education, fire
suppression, emergency medical services, and other related emergency and
non-emergency activities. We will
actively participate in our community, serve as role models, and strive to
effectively and efficiently utilize all of the necessary resources at our
command to provide a product deemed excellent by our citizens.
ALWAYS READY, PROUD TO SERVE”.
TO REPORT A FIRE OR ANY
EMERGENCY, DIAL 911
For
other Fire Department business or assistance, Dial 508-230-3311
Additional phone numbers;
Fire
Chief’s Office 508-230-0750
Fire
Prevention Office 508-230-0750
Fax
Number 508-238-2891
CONCLUSION
On a personal note, I would like to thank all the officers,
firefighters, and the department’s administrative secretary (Pam Berglund)
as well as the Board of Selectmen, Town Administrator, all the Department
heads and members of the various Town boards and committees for their
assistance over the past year.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas F. Stone, Fire Chief
Easton Fire Department