Fire collaborative makes community safer
In 2018 the Clayton, Englewood and Union Fire Departments started conducting joint trainings on a regular basis due to the amount of mutual aid regularly provided to one another. Each department realized the benefits from these joint trainings, and the discussion started, “Can we do better for the community?”
The answer from a fire department perspective was yes. Our goal and mission soon became to unite and provide superior services to the community through professionalism, reliability and integrity while utilizing the closest, most appropriate fire and emergency medical service apparatus.
The departments conducted comprehensive analysis identifying areas needing improvements to accomplish this goal. Areas needing improvement included staffing levels, availability of parttime personnel, coverage area split by jurisdictional boundaries, service and capital expenditure duplication and response times.
To improve these areas the departments requested support from the city managers and City Councils, which was received in March of 2020, via an approved memorandum of understanding. This went into effect on June 2, 2020.
After receiving overwhelming support from all three cities, we started improving in the areas identified in our analysis. Ensuring adequate staffing, a minimum standard was created, staffing was redistributed between stations and additional career firefighters were hired. The collaborative shares three battalion chiefs, who run the day-today operations for all four stations. This alleviates the need for each city having their own shift commanders. Part-time employees were given the opportunity to become employees with all three cities, increasing their ability to work additional hours. About 40% of our employees now work for multiple cities within the Collaborative. This stabilized our part-time staffing for the short term, while we continue to explore longterm solutions.
The cities combined are nearly 34 square miles with a population of over 33,000 residents. Municipal boundary lines have been removed, improving response times. We utilize four fire stations, and the closest, most appropriate apparatus responds to emergencies.
Duplication of services has been reduced by joint purchases, CPR classes, public education, scheduling systems, records management systems, and training opportunities. Capital expenditures will see significant cost savings from the Collaborative by reducing the amount of needed apparatus and firefighting gear with savings over the next 15 years estimated to be $5 million.
Response times were average across all three communities, and now due to the newly implemented philosophy of the closest, most appropriate apparatus, the response time is 3 minutes, 55 seconds, which is down as much as 1 minute and 30 seconds.
The three cities and fire departments view the implemented improvements and progress as a success thus far. This success is due to the adherence to the Collaborative’s mission, as well as buy-in from all three cities, fire department command staff, firefighters and most importantly the community.