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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFire Department Annual Report 2003.PDFCAYTJGA HEIGHTS FIRE DEPARTMENT ANNIJAL REPORT 2003 CAYUG,4 TNEIGI-TTS FtrR.E DEPA}?Tfuf ENT 194 Fleasant Grove R.oad Ithaca, NY 14850 (507) 257-2377 March 12,2004 Honorable Walter Lynn and the Village of Cayuga Heiglrts Board of Trustees Dear Mr. Mayor and Trustees, This last year has been a very busy one for the Cayuga Heights Fire Department. As well as running fifty more calls this year then last; we have implemented several new programs, we have put a new ladder truck out to bid, started our recruit training progmm and have gotten it off the ground with spectacular success, we passed an inspection of our rescue squad by the Department of Health and renewed our Advanced Life Support Certification for our rescue squad making us one of two ALS Certified rescue squads in Tompkins County. Our run total for the year was 492 calls. As stated before we ran fifty more calls this year then last. We had 270 calls in the village, 169 calls in the Town of Ithaca and we went mutuai aid 53 times. Our mutual aid responses included 28 times to Ithaca, 18 times to Lansing, 5 times to the Tompkins County Airport, once to Varna and once to Wayne County for the ice storm last winter. These numbers are amazing when looked at from the standpoint that many in this nation are saying that volunteerism is a dying trait. Our members responded to every single alarm we were activated for this year. Not once did this department need to call others to assist us because we could not put a piece of apparatus on the road for the call. We received mutual aid several times last year. Once for assistance on the Tarryton Road structure fre (we called Lansing and Ithaca), again for one engine from Ithaca to set up a landing zone for a medevac flight and a couple of times the Ithaca Fire Department sent a ladder truck our way while 231 was down for repairs. The response number posted by our members is nothinLg short of miraculous for this day and age in the volunteer fire service. On our 492 caIls we averaged 9.6 personnel per call for the year, our average response time was 1.1 minutes to put a piece of apparatus on the road, we were on the scene of the call within 1.3 minutes and our average length of incident was 28.3 minutes. Many of our fire calls are for activated alarms, while these calls seem at times monotonous, is still does not stop our firefighters from responding again and again. Our Emergency Medical responses ilre also outstanding" We provide ,, T{ ELF PREVEIVT F IRES'' basic and advanced life support to the residents of our district every time the call for help came. tn the past year we have had several serious medical calls including two accidents, one a bicycle accident and one a motor vehicle crash, where our EMS providers felt the situations warranted flying the patients by helicopter to a trauma center and by working hand in hand with Bangs Ambulance to provide superior care to these patients. Our mutual aid responses have provided invaluable support to our neighbors this year. We are one of two primary mutual aid departments for the City of Ithaca. We respond with manpower and equipment for nearly every structure fire that the Ithaca Fire Department responds to. We provide standby coverage at the Cenhal Fire Station to cover calls for Ithaca while they are busy at their fire scene. On one call, the motor vehicle crash on Sandbank Road, the volunteers of Cayuga Heights provided primary coverage for calls in the City of Ithaca while all of their units were committed to the spectacular rescue effort as well as setting up a landing zone for incoming medevac flights. Our firefighters, EMTs and paramedics are a huge benefit to this community. In the past year one of our main focus areas has been retention of members, especially members who reside as permanent residents of this community. Our membership for many years has consisted of mainly student volunteers from Cornell University with a much smaller number of long terrn community residents joining the ranks. Diminishing nurnbers of volunteer flrefighters is a national trend in the fire service. Once we identified this deficiency we have worked very hard this year to try and reverse the trend. While we still have a large number of sfudent volunteers, and we never want our student volunteers to disappear, we focused to bringing some more long term members to the department. Through the tireless efforts of or Recruitment and Retention Committee led by Assistant Chief (264) Marshall Stocker we have started to improve our long term membership issues as well as come more into line with the state mandated 55o/o of membership living within the fire dishict. In the past year we have welcomed thirty tlree new members into the department. Of those new members five can be considered members we will be able to retain long term, the other twenty eight are students who have dedicated two to three yeaffi to the deparbnent. Our membership continues to be transient with a majority of our members staymg for between three and five years but with the focus on membership retention and recruitnent of community members within five years we hope to have a solid base of long term members. Along with our focus on recrui.tment and retention last year we started our Recruit Training Program. This program focuses on accepting members twice a year irr large groups and training the group as a cohesive unit. In the past we accepted members every month and never seemed to be able to get a handle on a standardized training level for new members. This new progfirm has been an absolute success story. The recruits are all required to attend all in house recruit training sessions as well as meet the requirements set forth by the deparhnent for required state fre training classes within the first six months of membership. 'We have made it very clear to every new member what the requirements are prior to accepting their applications and allowing them to start training. We have completed two cycles of training and are currently running our third class" Those who have completed to last two classes are now completing interior checklists, training as apparatus clrivers, assisting with trainings and running calls. The recruit training program has been everything we hoped it would be and more. The success of this progmm not only lies with the dedication sf the new member but also with the outstanding backing and willingness of the senior members of the department to assist with training and give. of their own time to work with the newer members to bring them up to speed. We have implemented several changes to the department operations this year. In addition to the Recruit Training Program, we also changed our apparatus driving standard. We now require that all operators of the engines and ladder lruck take the Emergency Vehicle Operators course as well as a Basic Firefighter Course and a Pump Operators Course. The Fire Chiefs position is now a two year term. This change was made to keep more continuity in the chief s position in regards to deparhnent stability and more stability with the village govemment. We have purchased a Thermal nmaging Carnera to allow us to do our jobs more safely, we have replaced our outdated multi gas detector and put a station vehicle exhaust system out to bid. We looked at the money we were spending on maintenance on Laddet 231 and decided to investigate options on replacement of this piece of apparatus. After consultation with the village board and the Town of Ithaca we decided to move forward and investigate our options. We put countless hours into writing a comprehensive bid spec and put the truck out to bid. At this time we have received bids from several vendors and we are wotking our way slowly towards possibly accepting a bid to replace this truck. The Bunker Contract was rewritten this past year and after working with the village attorneys the new contract wa.s approved at the fire council and village board levels. All of the bunkers at the station have signed and are adhering to the new contract. We now have a station paging system in place. Our rescue squad remains outstanding. We currently have 13 Basic EMTs, 2 Intennediate EMTs, 2 Critical Care Techs and 5 Paramedics. As stated before this county has two Advanced Life Support Rescue squads and Cayuga Heights is one of them. Last year our Rescue Squad underwent a New York State Health Department Inspection which we passed with flying colors and aNew York State ALS Recertification which we also passed. Or Rescue Director Rebecca Updike and the assistant rescue directors, Bruce Derrick and Mike Bayer worked tirelessly this past year to pass these extremely time consurning and difficult inspections and are all to be sommended for their eflorts. The Fire Council has a written set of goals that we are working towards for the next year. Among the goals we are planning to revamp the Departrnent SOPs, plan a 50 year anniversary celebration, become more active in the community, continue to improve our training program, work with the &atemities and sororities in our district to get the fue prevention message out as well as many other goals. We look forward to a very good year. We at the fue department appreciate all the support we have gotten from the board and village this year. Without the support and positive input from the village govemment we could not have come so far and implemented the changes we have. The FIre Department is strong and will continue to provide outstanding coverage to the residents of this district forthe coming year. Cc: CathyValentino, Townof Ithaca RESPONSES T992-2003 YEAR 1992 t993 1994 r99s 1996 r997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 FIRE CALLS r46 168 198 242 331 213 179 245 297 223 208 263* EMS CALLS 2t0 176 t79 r92 2t5 173 20r 245 22r 224 234 229 TOTAL CALLS 356 344 377 434 546 386 380 450 518 447 442 492 * - this number reflects all MVCs and Mutual Aid calls. Cayuga Heights Fire Department Fire Departmenh 55002 Companies: All Date Range: From 01/01/2003 to 12/31/2003 BoxZone/ Code: Alt Ilistrict: All Situation Found: All Exclude Mutual Aids: No Exclude Exposures: No Incident Totals by Time of Day Time: 11:36 AM ah Ei hhFKFFFtEE?EEE =XooL,egE'FFrr'(ior0 F t; q) q) F t'|rl AFI F-?tl {) I.,r o BO t N al tf) 0) a N la N ; d gE €-eHAEl,A4ZZ E di ia; e : d q;.-=:'iE.-L-tr=x!?<=EEiv.9E:2: 5;"b a: E E::- q =t x AvaN !<",.g s 'E#=h "'E9g r-l {r, o) *,L q) AE Oli F U)1.. o0 0)frtl-l a0 >. U t, 0)q) gFi AFt >-. a Fr I c) eJ !\I N N . 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