Fire Service Deployment: Assessing Community Vulnerability

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1 Fire Service Deployment: Assessing Community Vulnerability ALTS January 2016 Thomas Breyer & Nicole Taylor

2 Today s Objective This workshop will provide resources and teach the concepts of matching FD resources deployed - to risk in the community to assure that IAFF leaders can present these same concepts at home.

3 Why? Because Rhetoric Doesn t Work Fact or Evidence Based Rebuttal To Threatened Cuts So You Can Provide Informed Solutions To Problems Not Just Complain About Them End Game: Protect Jobs and Stay Safe

4 How? We will review concepts and current science We will discuss how this is relevant to your situations You will practice making some of these resource versus risk decisions via a tabletop exercise

5 Fire Department Core Values Protect lives, property, and the environment through preparedness, prevention, public education, and emergency response with an emphasis on quality services, efficiency, effectiveness, and safety.

6 Matching Resources to Risk If fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in firefighter injury and death civilian injury and death property loss

7 Fire Department Expectations Service expectations have steadily increased Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Response to natural disasters Hazardous materials incidents Technical rescue Acts of terrorism

8 Fire Department Challenges budget crises rising call volume personnel and equipment shortages security issues expectation to do more with less

9 Challenges are Driving Dangerous Decisions Forcing decisions to cut fire department resources faster than we can evaluate their impact Cuts can leave a community without sufficient resources to respond safely and effectively

10 Plan to the Budget or Budget to the Plan Fire chiefs faced with policies created by municipal officials With finite budgetary resources Without a solid technical foundation for evaluating the impact of staffing and deployment decisions on the safety of the public and firefighters

11 The Need for Hazard Risk Assessment Traditional focus of risk assessment identification of fire hazards and planning an appropriate suppression response force Today, hazard risk assessment goes well beyond the fire problem to medical and other emergencies. Fire chiefs must assess; A wide array of hazards The risk level associated with an adverse event involving those hazards The necessary resources for response to such an event

12 The Need for Hazard Risk Assessment The resources (personnel and equipment) needed for the response must consider the outcomes Firefighter injury and death Civilian injury and death Property loss (and the environment)

13 Matching Resources to Risk Following a community hazard/risk assessment, Departments must prepare a plan for timely and sufficient coverage of all hazards and the adverse risk events that occur.standard of Response Coverage. (Standards of Cover) Standards of response coverage is defined as the written policies and procedures that establish the distribution and concentration of fixed and mobile resources of an organization

14 Standards of Cover Resource distribution is associated with geography of the community travel time to emergencies Distribution is typically measured by the percent of the jurisdiction covered by the first-due units. Concentration is also about geography arranging of multiple resources spacing them so that an initial "effective response force" can arrive on scene within time frames established

15 Matching Resources to Risk Response time goals for first-due units (distribution) and Response time goals for the total effective onscene emergency response force (concentration) Drive fire department objectives like fire station location, apparatus deployed and staffing levels.

16 Explaining to Decision Makers If response times and force assembly times are low, it is an indicator that sufficient resources have been deployed and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be positive. Conversely, if response times and force assembly times are high, it is an indicator of insufficient resources and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be negative.

17 Fire Department Performance Resource Availability/Reliability is the degree to which the resources are ready and available to respond. Department Capability is the ability of the resources deployed to manage an incident. Operational Effectiveness is the product of availability and capability. It is the outcome achieved by the deployed resources or a measure of the ability to match resources deployed to the risk level to which they are responding

18 Explaining On Scene Risk Escalation Decision makers typically do not understand the dynamics of fire behavior and the associated risk Flashover is a significant stage of fire growth The likelihood of survival & the chance of saving trapped occupants drops dramatically. Flashover creates an exponential increase in fire growth rate A considerably greater amount of water is needed to extinguish the burning material. A greater number of firefighters are required to handle the fire spread to different locations in the structure and the larger hose streams now necessary Science shows that a post flashover fire burns hotter and grows faster as time progresses compounding the search and rescue task in the remainder of the structure

19 Using Science to Design Resource Deployment Understanding fire behavior is key to designing an emergency response system a sufficient number of firefighters and equipment strategically located throughout the community assure that the minimum acceptable response force can be assembled to engage before flashover (or substantial risk escalation) occurs. To save lives and limit property damage firefighters must arrive at the right time, with adequate resources to do the job.

20 Matching Resources to Risks---Tools for Decision Making NFPA Standard 1710 specifies that the number of on-duty fire suppression personnel The Fire Protection Handbook identifies initial attack response capabilities NFPA Standard Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs U.S. DOL OSHA Regulation 2 in 2 out - requirements for the number of workers required to be present when conducting operations in IDLH atmospheres NFPA sets the minimum safety guidelines for personnel involved in rescue, fire suppression The activities involved in controlling and extinguishing fires., emergency medical services, hazardous materials operations, and special operations

21 Matching Resources to Risks---Tools for Decision Making NIST Studies (Research) Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments (NIST Technical Note 1661) shows the expected changes in the consequences resultant from the same fire hazard when the resource allocation provided by the community is changed Fire Department Accreditation- comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables fire departments to examine past, current, and future service levels and performance

22 Matching Resources to Risks---Tools for Decision Making Insurance Service Office (ISO)- The ISO Public Protection Classification program is designed to help establish fire insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties based in part on community s fire protection services. Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS)- measures the major elements of a community s fire suppression system and develops a numerical grading. ISO uses this information to assign a Public Protection Classification number from 1 to 10 based on the response capabilities of the fire department. Class 1 represents exemplary fire protection Class 10 indicates that the fire suppression program does not meet ISO s minimum criteria

23 ISO Reports

24 Matching Resources to Risks---Tools for Decision Making Fire Underwriters Survey TM (FUS)- The FUS is a national organization administered by OPTA Information Intelligence, formerly part of the Canadian Underwriters Association. Like ISO, subscribers of the FUS represent approx. 85% of the property and casualty insurers in Canada. Fire Underwriters Survey TM Certified Fire Protection Specialists conduct detailed field surveys of the fire risks and fire defenses maintained in built up communities (including incorporated and unincorporated communities of all types) across Canada and the results of these surveys are used to establish a Public Fire Protection Classification TM (PFPC) for each community, including a Dwelling Protection Grade (DPG).

25 What is a Department to Do When Forced to Make Decisions? Leaders must often act in the absence of complete information When evaluating impact - health and safety of the firefighters are the primary consideration Identify and share best practices Weed out less successful policies and programs Conferences, online resources, newsletters, journals

26 Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions When evaluating current capability or measuring impact of a change in the level of resources deployed, department leaders (and community officials) must decide: What resources to commit to risk management (prevention/pre-planning/preparation); What resources to commit to response/mitigation The acceptable level of risk.

27 Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions Decisions must be based on understanding of relationship between community hazards and associated risk, basic emergency response infrastructure, including fire department response capability outcomes of emergency incidents Considering these three elements AND the tools available to decision makers, a basic community vulnerability formula emerges

30 Vulnerability Formula Risk Level Too few resources (-) = (-) Outcome Risk Level Appropriate Resources (+) = (+) Outcome

31 Policy Example "For 90 percent of all incidents, the first-due unit shall arrive on scene within a four minute travel time. The first-due unit shall be capable of advancing the first line for fire suppression, starting rescue or providing basic life support for medical incidents."

Data Step 3 = Analyze Response Data Step 4 = Summarize

32 Quality Decision Making Step 1 = Assess Fire Hazards and Associated Risks in the Community Step 2 = Collect Response Data Step 3 = Analyze Response Data Step 4 = Summarize Emergency Response System Status Step 5 = Report to Decision Makers

33 Matching Resources to Risk If fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in firefighter injury and death civilian injury and death property loss

34 And in the Real World? Same principles as above Leverage information in Consultant Reports (the objective ones), and ISO or FUS Reports Study FD Data Sources Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and computer deployment models IAFF Resources

35 Questions?

Fax

Fax Lehigh Acres Fire Control & Rescue District Office of the Fire Chief donalda@lehighfd.com 239.303.5300 239.369.2436Fax Memorandum To: Board of Fire Commissioners From: Donald R. Adams, Sr., Fire Chief