As fire service leaders, we cant always control the amount funding/resources we are given to work with, however we MUST be able to clearly outline to the public and our elected officials exactly what we are capable of doing AND NOT DOING with that particular level of funding and resources At this incident, although they were on scene within 5 minutes, the initial arriving unit was only a two person crew in a rescue vehicle, essentially a pickup truck with a fire hose. Remember, when politicians say that a reduction in staffing, or taking fire trucks out of service wont affect response times that may be true. A fire truck with 1, 2, 3 or 4 firefighters can arrive in 5 minutes all the same, BUT what counts is what they have the ability to DO once they arrive on scene. Fire departments exist to create EXCELLENT OUTCOMES for the people they serve! Response times are NOT outcomes. People dont really care about the number of minutes it takes us to arrive, they care about us being able to show up fast enough to fix the problem and get them as close as we can back to the way they were before the problem occurred. A 5 min. response time means nothing if you dont have the staffing, equip, training, discipline, passion, motivation, etc ...to get the JOB DONE when you get there.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 18:31:42 +0000
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