Week # 3: Reduce Emergency Response Times (continued)

We will finish our presentation on delayed response times this evening. Last week we presented the first of two policies in the GFD that permits delays that have been documented of up to four minutes on emergency medical calls. The policy is found in Chapter 4 of the Glendale Fire Department’s Policy and Procedure Manual. It permits engine and truck companies to drive to remote areas or even out of their neighborhood fire districts altogether so the firefighters can jog. Four such incidents were randomly examined and each posted response times from six to eight minutes. The average response time is four minutes when emergency responders initiate their response from their centrally located fire station. The GFD has one of the best overall response times, but they also have too many “failed incidents”, a term used by their consultant, Civic Technologies, in a document presented in July, 2004. When they are jogging in remote areas, as Engine 27 does daily in Brand Park, their response time is two to four minutes longer or an added delay by 50% to 100%. These are the kinds of “failed responses” the consultant was referring. The total time it took Engine 27 to respond to four randomly selected calls from Brand Park were, two at six minutes, one at seven minutes and one at eight minutes. It needs to be stated again, heart attacks and strokes are two of the most common medical crisis that citizens of Glendale experience every day. Permanent damage or death occurs in the fourth and fifth minute into the event. Is it fair to a heart attack victim to get an eight-minute response when the fire department has the capability to get to the victim in four minutes by simply canceling a policy that allows them to jog in remote areas? The best practice in response times is being trumped by internal policy decisions. The fire department has an overriding duty, a professional standard, to the public to be prepared to respond to emergency calls as fast as possible. That is clearly not happening today. Every fire station has aerobic and weight resistance training equipment on the grounds and there is no need to drive to remote areas to get fitness training.

The second policy that causes significant delays in emergency medical and fire responses is another good example of a bad aspect of the fire culture. It occurs when a fire station closes down and leaves its district and another out-of-district engine or truck company, and in some cases a rescue ambulance, has to respond in its place. Supported by their own data, fire officials say that it takes about another two minutes for an out-of-district engine company to arrive at an emergency call as the first responder and even longer for a truck company. The fire department has the actual data, but they do not make it available to the public. In an email dated May 20, 2006, battalion chief Donald Wright states, “As you can envision, removing equipment from anywhere within the response area [neighborhood fire station] will increase the time required for responders from elsewhere to fill in”. It needs to be noted that there are legitimate reasons for engine and truck companies to be out of district, such as off-site training. But, a close look at the records reveals there are many unjustified reasons for closing stations.

The most egregious examples are when engine companies, from all over the city, close their neighborhood fire stations and drive to fire administrative headquarters located downtown at Station 21 so that one or more firefighters can get measured and/or fitted for items such as boots and other equipment, and uniforms. Stations also close down to receive annual flu shots at Station 21. A slight policy change to have the vendors respond to the individual fire stations to give flu shots or equipment fittings would keep the engine and truck companies in their quarters ready for optimal response. Remember the GFD states that it takes about two additional minutes for an engine company to respond on a call out of district and substantially longer for a truck company. Firefighters on truck companies ventilate the roof on structure fires before ground personnel can make entry and extinguish the fire. A delay of a truck company can result in a total loss of a house. A fire can expand four times every minute. Truck companies also carry the Jaws of Life to extricate accident victims from their mangled cars. Delay of this device at the scene of a major traffic collision could result in the loss of life.

Other common examples of engine and truck companies closing stations are for things like special events, retirement parties, awards banquets, funerals, civic events, parades and other activities of a ceremonial or educational nature. While on-duty, they will also drive to city hall and attend city council meetings, parking the truck or engine nearby. Some or all of the four-member emergency response crew will be present in the council chambers. You may recall at a CIP study session in June of this year, Fire Captain and union president Stavros stood before you in uniform and on duty, and told you that he intends to be present for council meetings this coming year for as long as it takes to get you to approve the two new fire stations. Unabashedly, he said this in front of the fire chief and a deputy fire chief, whom were also present, without fearing any kind of sanctions, even though his fire station is in another district. These activities either take the company out of service or cause significant delays in emergency responses. There are alternative solutions to having the fire department participate in these activities and also maintain the geographic integrity of the full complement of engines, trucks and rescue ambulances. I will address these approaches to service delivery in future presentations.

At the 2006 Glendale Fire Department’s Annual Awards Luncheon, two engine companies and one truck company closed their doors for several hours so the twelve on-duty firefighters could attend. With two-thirds of the firefighters off-duty at any given time, the annual event should be well represented by our firefighters without having to close down neighborhood fire stations. Although there are many more examples where engine and truck companies violate the geographic integrity of their districts, I will share one other that is sadly disconcerting. In this case, the purpose of closing this engine company for several hours was to drive the engine and its four firefighters to downtown fire headquarters so one firefighter could use that station’s copy machine. A few pages of documents were copied that were being requested under the Public Records Act. This process is purely a clerical exercise and does not rise to the justification of closing an engine company’s doors for several hours. This engine company drove back to its station and faxed the copies back to headquarters, thereby negating the reason for driving there in the first place. Each station is equipped with state of the art computers and software for all required written reports, document preparation and storage just like any modern office. Each station has the capability of sending and receiving documents. If a firefighter needs to be somewhere out of his district, he can drive there alone to conduct his business and keep the apparatus and remaining three firefighters in their neighborhood fire stations ready for optimal response to the next call. According to their activity logs, driving the engine and entire crew out of district for the need of one of the four firefighters is common practice. The Best Practice of geographic integrity seems to be taken lightly and does not serve the best interests of the public. Another everyday occurrence has engine and truck companies driving needlessly out of district to shop for food, often twice a day.

With the authority of Chapter 4 of its Policy and Procedure Manual, firefighters jog in remote parks or around several blocks from their district fire stations. This causes significant delays in response times and cheats the public out of receiving the best emergency response service possible. An internal policy in the Fire Department that adds minutes to emergency calls could be considered a breach of duty, opening up potential law suits, and should be disturbing for policy makers who have the authority to change such policies and practices. The city council has an obligation to safeguard public interest by having this policy rescinded. It is not often when the council can act immediately upon a flawed policy that can have life-saving consequences. I have conducted citizen interviews and focus groups on the merits of this policy and have yet to find one individual who supports it. They clearly favor the alternative, policies that reduce response times. The ultimate goal is to save lives and property.

Next week I will address staffing issues that will offer annual savings of between $6 and $12 million dollars to the City of Glendale.

ã 2007

Contact Information for questions and copies of the document:

Bruce Philpott

Phone: (818) 240-8949

Email: logicpoint@aol.com/