Your Fire Chief has already begun the process of renewing the "Total Quint Concept" despite the desperate pleas from members in his leadership team and all of the Firefighters and officers in the field. His past Operations Chief and his current Operations Chief are against continuing on this path of fiscal irresponsibility as is the Apparatus Committee. The Fire Chief has ignored their ideas and pleas to consider other response plans that are less expensive, more effective, and can decrease response times. He has been quoted by the previous Operations Chief as saying "I will not be the Chief who goes away from the Quint Concept". Your Fire Chief has been the Appointed Authority for approx. 7 years and the lack of planning for our fleet replacement is atrocious. He has told the department that he is staying with the Quints and that he has ordered a $600,000 Rescue Engine to "experiment with". This is a direct quote from a town hall meeting. If you ask him today he will tell you that he is now waiting for the Fitch study (which costs well over $100,000) to tell him what to do with his department and his fleet/response model. I'm not a taxpayer in the city, but if I were I would be furious that he needs a study to make a decision that any competent Fire Chief can make and should make.
So the bottom line is this.....the Firefighters want to save $15 million by getting rid of the Quint Concept. Here it is in layman terms:
-Right now the Chief's plan is to continue with the Quint concept which deploys a dual fleet. This means that every fire station in the City gets a $500,000 Engine and a million dollar Quint (this apparatus has a ladder on top). this is based on the new apparatus that we have already started to receive and these figures are actually lower than the actual cost. 7 rigs are here and 3 others are being built. (not counting the Rescue trucks).
-There is only one crew of four firefighters to run these trucks. If it is an EMS call, Vehicle accident, Car fire, or other misc. call we take the engine, leaving the 1 million dollar ladder/Quint in the station unmanned. If the call is for a fire, alarm, gas leak, or odor of smoke we take the Quint, leaving the 1/2 million dollar engine unmanned.
-do the math, that is 1.5 million per station, 20 stations, for total of $30 million.
-Recommendations to the Fire Chief have been plentifull and include senarios that would abandon the dual fleet concept and go to a modified or hybrid style Quint concept where we would have 10 Quints and 10 Engines thus cutting the fleet to 20 trucks. In this senario alone we would save $15 MILLION.
-Now just to add insult to injury lets look at the savings in maintenance costs and tools and equipment. I would make a conservative guess that we can save at least 3 to 5 million by going to a "single" fleet model. It is not rocket science......maintenance, fuel, SCBA, EMS equipment, tools, hose, etc. for 40 peices of apparatus is less expensive than for 20. This brings the total of what we can save up to approx 20 MILLION.
It is happening as we speak. An apparatus update came out last week and it said "we are planning the purchase of the next batch of trucks soon after July 1st". We need your help NOW to stop this reckless spending. Please help us hold the Fire Chief accountable for this mis-allocation of funds. The economy is down, no raises, our career development is frozen, everyone is pinching pennies to make ends meet and he is poised to waste up to 20 MILLION. Help us to help save the citizens of richmond thier hard earn money!!!
Excellent article!
ReplyDeleteIt's truly mindboggling, isn't it? Nobody agrees with the Quint-concept yet it's our chief's way or the highway --- are you kidding me?!?!?
This is a [pathetic and money wasting] system that has been tried by other departments in the past and [almost] immediately scrapped, yet our Fire Chief knows best...?
Pfftt...
The only way we can end this now [NOW!] is to show the door to Fire Chief Creecy.
Enough is enough already!!!
What's the point of a committee when you refuse to listen to them?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the error in the second to last paragraph, second to last sentence. Obviously I meant to say that all the expenses for 40 trucks is more expensive than 20.
ReplyDeletechannel 6 is on it and asking a bunch of questions,the game is over
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome post!! Please be aware that everything is lined up and ready to go for the purchase of three more Quints after July 1. Another 3.5 million is getting ready to go down the drain. We need for the CAO and Council to stop the purchase of these rigs and start asking questions.
ReplyDelete3 battalion chief positions, 2 staff battalion chief positions, 1 ems instructor who does not instruct, a tripled force of civilians and a 28 million dollar dual fleet replacement plan......Did Creecy win the budget lottery? When were the last City wide salary raises or tax cut? How can one get away with such a waste of money?
ReplyDeleteHow many miles to the gallon do those quints get? Diesel is not getting any cheaper
ReplyDeleteFire apparatus wasn't ever designed to get high fuel millage. They are work horses and use the fuel to do the job they are intended to do.
DeleteI just heard today that another thing that money spent on the Zoll tattle tale system came from is turnout gear cleaning and SCBA face piece fit testing. I have googled everything about this that I can find and NIOSH and OSHA requires fire fighters to be fit tested once every 12 months. I haven't been tested in a year and a half. Why do we clean our gear according to manufacture recommendations then suddenly stop because of poor management of the department budget? NFPA standards are there for a reason, not just a hint as to what you pick and choose to do.
ReplyDeleteTo me this is a safety issue, both the dirty turnout gear and the federal requirements for fit testing. Should this have been budgeted yearly for a certain number of years? Is this now playing with peoples lives vs. untested toys cameras on fire trucks?
Southside Johnnie, excellent.
DeleteFire Chief talks about safety, but doesn't get us fit tested and there is a distinct possibility that funds have been grossly mismanaged that were supposed to be there so turnout gear could be routinely decontaminated. Do you think turnout gear can accumulate carcinogens after repeated use???????
No one believes the fire chief cares about the safety or welfare of the firefighters in the field. The fire chief would sacrifice our health for what ever it is he thinks he is accomplishing. There are those that are of the opinion that he is an inherently evil person.
The company repairing face pieces is tired of not getting paid. On the last round of repairs there were several masks that had damage that was previously being repaired however now it is being overlooked. When asked it was stated that only major repairs were being performed due to money issues. Your last line of defense is that face piece and due to "MONEY ISSUES" repairs are not being performed.
DeleteCan anyone confirm this?
DeleteThat goes hand in hand with the scba and face pieces. We cannot replace flawed scba's because of money and the individual fixing face pieces is tired of not getting paid. Enough so that repairs he had previously been making during inspections are no longer being performed.
ReplyDeleteThe RFD is the richest, poor fire department in the US.
ReplyDeletePonder that for a second.
WASTE!!
Chief is now saying no raises until 2018 but we got pretty new trucks so be happy
ReplyDeleteWhen did he say 2018?...my name is zack and I approve of this post.
ReplyDeleteWho needs to feed and clothe our families when we have pretty firetrucks to ride around in?
ReplyDeleteOur community association would really like to hear more about this if someone wouldn't mind attending. I am sure all of the associations would like a chance to hear more.
ReplyDeletewho is your commuinty association and when do they meet? A representative of the Local 995, Richmond Professional Firefighters will be there.
DeleteWhat association are you with? I am sure that we can get someone to attend the meeting and give you all of the information.
DeleteOne aspect of our Quint concept that we have touched on is the position it places us in as far as experience level of the first arriving "truck" co. I'm sure, in numerous companies all over the city, there is a driver that has been turned over 6 months or less, and a hydrant person that's got an orange helmet on. For those that don't know, the driver and the hydrant person of a Quint make up the "outside truck" crew when they are 2nd to arrive at a fire. The tasks place on them can really make or break and operation in performed poorly. So, you can see our dilemma when we ask a very inexperienced team to carry out these tasks. The following is an excerpt from TheSecretList email about 7 MD firefighters injured yesterday.
ReplyDelete"Preliminary reports from PGFD PIO Mark Brady indicate that Firefighters had initiated an interior attack on the fire when a sudden rush of air, fanned by high winds, entered from the rear of the house either from a door or window being opened or broken out. The sudden addition of a large amount of fresh air into the fire environment created a "fire ball' inside engulfing the Firefighters."
Notice the part about a window being broken or a door opened? Do you think that our inexperienced truck crews could make this mistake? Does this mean we have close calls on every fire that we have? No. But I'm sure the risk increases exponentially when you place people in this position. I'd say we're more lucky than we are good.
My officer told me that during the latest officer's seminar, it was stressed how important it is to "pass on knowledge" and for officers to "teach firefighters everything that you know". These are important elements, and I'm glad that they are stressed. This may be easier if it the idea of officers or, "leaders", spending 90% of their time in their offices wan't encouraged. This is especially detrimental to newer or more impressionable officers. Don't laugh, it's the mindset of some that wear multiple bugles. Please someone smarter than me, tell me how an officer can spend 90% of his or her time in the office doing "officer stuff", and teach an inexperience crew how to be proficient and safe operators, and truck and engine firefighters, and not kill or injure civilians or fellow firefighters?
Well as much as I hate to say it I belive the fight over the Zoll system is over. Its been bought and paid for and it isnt going away. I think the union should refocus our fight vs. the impending employee increase into the Retirement system, and the fact that the mayor would rather spend the entire 68 million that was paid to the city from the RMA on other projects then give the city employees a raise. His interview on the news made me sick to my stomach. Increased our insurance, increase our Retirement contribution from 1.5% to 5%, but not give us a raise or give us back our CDP.
ReplyDeleteI hope the union leadership see's this as "one of those battles worth fighting for"......