New Deployment Plan
Incident #: Date of Incident: 7/25/2011 Issuing Officer: AC Schaeffer
Narrative:
Dealing with difficult financial times and an ever-increasing incident volume, the Spokane Fire Department has developed a new plan to reduce the number of fire engines responding to incidents while simultaneously boosting the City's ability to respond to critical medical emergencies. The new deployment plan started this morning at 0800 and results in Fire Department Paramedics being better distributed throughout the City's response area based on computer modeling of prior incidents and geographic informational systems analysis performed in the Standard of Deployment Coverage (available on www.spokanefire.org). As a result of the new staffing plan, a new Paramedic Engine Company will be placed in-service in Station 2 (serving Logan, Longfellow and Bemiss Neighborhoods). Engine 2 has been out-of-service since 2004 after deep budget cuts, however with the staffing modification it will now be staffed with three personnel (with at least one being a Paramedic) using a reserve engine. Also, the existing BLS Engine Company at Station 17 (serving Indian Trail, 5-Mile and Balboa Neighborhoods) is also now staffed with at least one Paramedic. Enhancing Engine 17 and Engine 2's capability with Paramedics truly brings life-saving resources into the neighborhoods and decreases response time on critical incidents-when seconds count. Adding two additional Paramedic Companies will also reduce the number of multiple unit responses to medical incidents and improve the availability for other companies that traditionally have to leave their areas to assist Engine 17 and Engine 2 on serious medical incidents. The change in the deployment plan was led by Fire Department Administration, Mayor and City Council and involved significant collaboration from City Staff, IAFF Local 29 and Spokane Fire Officers Association (the union representing Division and Battalion Chiefs). The length of this project took over two years to develop, justify, negotiate and implement. Besides the obvious impacts with capital equipment, there were also significant challenges which staff overcame in dispatching/communications, logistics, planning and operations--it was a true organizational effort. Overall, this monumental change for the organization gives the department a higher level of capacity and resources to respond to emergencies without an increased cost to the taxpayers. One of the SFD's goals for service delivery is constant improvement and monitoring outcomes. This change was implemented to deliver professional Firefighters and Paramedics to the customer experiencing their worst day as fast and safely as we can. (As of 0900 this morning, Engine 2 and Engine 17 have already been dispatched to serious medical incidents and helped two families).
Cause:
N/A
Damage:
N/A
End Of Release For more information on this release please call (509) 625-7002
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