HomeMy WebLinkAboutFire Department Annual Report 2004`T k ,_>
March 12, 2004
CAYUGA HEIGHTS FIRE DEPARTMENT
194 Pleasant Grove Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 257 -2377
Honorable Walter Lynn and the
Village of Cayuga Heights 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 program
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
mutual 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 fire (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 nothing short of miraculous for this day
and age in the volunteer fire service. On our 492 calls 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 are also outstanding. We provide
"HELP PREVENT FIRES"
basic and advanced life support to the residents of our district every time the call for help
came. In 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 wan-anted 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 Central 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 medevae 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 term community residents joining the ranks. Diminishing
numbers of volunteer firefighters 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 student 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 55% of
membership living within the fine district. In the past year we have welcomed thirty three
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 years to the department. Our membership continues to be
transient with a majority of our members staying for between three and five years but
with the focus on membership retention and recruitment of community members within
five years we hope to have a solid base of long tens members.
Along with our focus on recruitment and retention last year we started our Recruit
Training Program. This program focuses on accepting members twice a year in 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 program 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 department for required state fire 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 drivers, assisting with trainings and running calls. The
recruit training program has been everything we hoped it would be and more. The
success of this program not only lies with the dedication of 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 truck 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 department stability and more stability with
the village government. We have purchased a Thermal Imaging Camera 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 Ladder 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 working 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 was 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
Intermediate 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 a New 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 consuming and difficult inspections and are all to be commended for their
efforts.
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 Department SOPs, plan a 50 year
anniversary celebration, become more active in the community, continue to improve our
training program, work with the fraternities and sororities in our district to get the fire
prevention message out as well as many other goals. We look forward to a very good
year.
We at the fire department appreciate all the support we have gotten from the board and
village this year. Without the support and positive input from the village government 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
for the coming year.
7 Sin rely,
Gee Tamborelle
Fi Chief/Fire Superintendent
Cc: Cathy Valentino, Town of Ithaca
RESPONSES 1992 -2003
YEAR
•FIItE CALLS
EMS CALLS
TOTAL CALLS
1992
146
210
356
1993
168
176
344
1994
198
179
377
1995
242
192
434
1996
331
215
546
1997
213
173
386
1998
179
201
380
1999
205
245
450
2000
297
221
518 .
2001
223
224
447
2002
208
234
442
2003
263*
229
492
* - this number reflects all MVCs and Mutual Aid calls.
Cayuga Heights Fire Department
Incident Totals by Time of Day
Companim All
Dale Range. From 01/01/2003 to 1251/2003
Dax/Loncl Code: All
Dlstriet: Ail
Situation Found: All
Exclude Mutual Aids: No
Exclude Exposures: No
Time of Day
Call
Count
Avg
Attend
00:00 - 00:59
13
8.7
01:00 - 01:59
15
10.5
02:00 - 02:59
10
6.9
03:00 - 03:59
9
8.7
04 :00 - 04:59
8
6.0
05:00 - 05:59
10
6.2
06:00 - 06:59
8
10.5
07:00 - 07:59
19
9.1
08:00 - 08:59
43
8.1
09:00 - 09:59
27
7.5
10:00 -10:59
19
6.6
11:00 -11:59
f.,
32
8.3
12:00 -12 :59
= =i
32
7.7
13:00 -13:59
20
9.5
14:00 -14:59
28
9.0
15:00 -15:59
`.:
24
10.8
16:00 -16:59
27
11.3
17:00 -17:59
_
29
12.6
18:00 -18:59
27
11.7
19:00 -19:59
28
13.9
20:00 - 20:59
24
14.0
21:00 - 21:59
14
11.1
22:00 - 22:59
14
13.2
23:00 - 23:59
12
11.2
ate: 03/12/2004 Page: 1 Time: 11:36 AMI
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Cayuga Heights Fire Department
Incident Reponse Performance Analysis
Fire Department: 55002
Companies: All
Date Range: From 01/01/2003 to 12/312003
Box/Loud Code: All
District: All
Situation Found: All
Exclude Mutual Aids: No
Exclude Exposures: No
Response Time
Response Time
(Minutes)
Number of Incidents
Totals
Additional
0-1
351
Longest Time: 10.0
2-3
80
Incident#: 030406
4-5
45
Average Time: 1.1
6 -7
10
8 -9
5
>10
1
Apparatus Travel Time
Travel Time
(Minutes)
Number of Incidents
Totals
Additional
0-4
461
Longest Time: 16.0
5-9
26
Incident#: 030475
10-14
3
Average Time: 1.3
15-19
2
20-24
0
>25
0
Incident Length
Incident Length
(Minutes)
Number of Incidents
Totals
Additional
0-29
398
Longest Time: 1550.0
30 -59
57
Incident#: 030145
60-89
16
Average Time: 28.3
90-119
9
120-149
3
> 150
9
Date: 031 =004 Page: 1 Time: 11:38 AMI
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