How many Firefighters?

The number of firefighters we have

The amount of firefighters we have has continuously been attacked as “too many”, “we don't need five firefighters” Consider some stories from some firefighters.

“I was responding to a wreck on the thruway.” Says one firefighter. “It was snowy, windy and icy. This car went off the road, it was down an embankment, the driver was trapped and an extraction was required. At the time we were one guy on duty. I had to position the truck to block the scene so we didn't get hit by another car. I was there in the red solo truck and thank God there weren't more people trapped in the car. It felt very isolating. I couldn't do much by myself so when farmington pulled up they actually did the extraction and I just assisted.”

“I remember a couple of fires, pulling up first due, no other apparatus responding”, one firefighter says. “You have to put the truck in to pump, pull a hose line, go back to the pump to charge the hose and then get back to the nozzle to try to do something and usually by then someone else would be there to help move the hose” another firefighter who later transferred to another fire district called this “the Fishers way”. The first firefighter adds “totally not right, but you try to do your best. Thank God in those years when we were working solo - about five years - we never had an incident where someone got hurt, career wise”

Otherwise the NFPA standard 1710 says 4 firefighters on a truck for an area such as ours. That truck, by standard, has 80 seconds to respond and 240 seconds maximum for travel time. A total response time of 320 seconds (5 minutes , 20 seconds) to 90% of dispatch incidents is the standard. The entire initial alarm must be on scene in 560 seconds (9 minutes, 20 seconds). Lets understand how we furnish an initial alarm (17 interior firefighters per standard). We obviously rely on mutual aid considering we have 5 firefighters on duty roughly 50% of the time. We only have two volunteer firefighters who are interior, who both have full time jobs and families. Consider how mutual aid works. Three of our mutual aid departments are in another county. This adds a layer of complexity. Our county dispatch must contact their county dispatch to have them dispatched. This takes a few minutes. Those three departments are volunteer. They have to leave home/work, drive to the firehouse, wait for enough people to arrive and then respond. Then they have to drive to another fire district. Let's look at that in a minute and seconds timeline.

This call is at night and a kitchen fire has trapped a family on their second floor while they were sleeping (pot left on the stove)

00:00 = Realize there's an emergency, initiated a call to 911

00:01 = call processed and being dispatched to Fishers and Victor

00:02 = Fishers units responding (5 FF)

00:03 = Monroe county advised

00:04 = Bushnell's Basin Dispatched

00:06 = 1st Fishers unit on scene (3/2 firefighters) does not meet 2in/2out regulation)

00:07 = First fishers unit is sizing up situation / Victor engine responding (4 FFs)

00:08 = 1st unit initiates rescue attempt not enough manpower to provide suppression

00:09 = BBFD engine with 5 firefighters responding

00:09 = 2nd Fishers unit is on scene (3/2 FF on scene manpower now meets 2in/2out)

__________manpower onscene____00:09:20________6 / 5 firefighters _______________

00:10 = 2nd Fishers unit unit stretching a line for initial attack

00:12 = Victor engine on scene (decision to vent, ladder, 2nd hose line, assist with search)

00:14 = Victor engine initiating assigned task

00:18 = BBFD engine on scene

Total manpower establish at 18 minutes = 15 firefighters

Why do we stress not reducing the small amount of personnel that we have? Why do we stress our response times? The number one reason: our firefighter’s safety and our effectiveness when associated with the standard and normal fireground functions needing completion. To always operate with a team and not alone. To meet OSHA 2in/2out regulation. Secondly, our backup is not close, there is a time delay even if it's our second truck. We will not, and our partner agencies will not meet the 1710 or 1720 standard unless a duty crew system is established and “home responses” systems are abolished. If three other stations were staffed with interior firefighters in the timeline above 17 firefighters would have been on scene in 9 minutes and 20 seconds. To reiterate thats for a house fire. We have nearly 600 businesses in the district. The standard for a commercial building fire is 45 firefighters.

One firefighter says “it's for life safety, for us and for them, them being the public. We can only do so much with a limited number of bodies. If we have appropriate staffing we’re much more efficient, much faster and much safer. Every second counts, it saves lives, it saves property.

We staff the way we do because it's a necessity. One firefighter say “when I got hired we had 50 volunteer firefighters, obviously not all interior. But today? We have two interior firefighters and seven or eight exteriors.” The staff is a necessity.