MESA FIRE and MEDICAL DEPARTMENT

COUNTY ISLAND FIRE PROTECTION ANALYSIS

1 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The County Island Fire Protection Analysis has been compiled as an adjunct to the Mesa Fire and Medical Department Standards of Cover and provides an overview of the fire protection risks and emergency medical services demand in the unincorporated county lands that lay within City of Mesa boundaries. Although the Mesa Fire and Medical Department is not primarily responsible for providing emergency services in these areas, it is our responsibility to be familiar with the needs of those communities and plan for any contingency that could have a future impact on Fire and Medical Department operations as a whole. Therefore the major elements detailed in this analysis are Risk Assessment and Service Demand as well as a brief description of methodology, data bases and Geographic Information Systems used during compilation.

The Risk Assessment element includes an evaluation of the transportation network, water delivery infrastructure, land use, population density and the associated risk classifications that were compared in a consistent manner with the rest of the city.

The most significant deviation in risk from the rest of the city is:

 The lack of hydrants and older water delivery infrastructure in most of the county islands. As far as land use and population density these islands mimic closely the adjacent incorporated parcels and there are no significant industrial risks currently serviced by Rural/Metro in these areas.  The geographical areas projected to have the highest service demand are the retirement communities of Leisure World and Velda Rose along with the proximal long term care facilities, and the Main Street corridor east of Power Road extending to the Pinal County line.

The most significant Service Demand elements include:

 Projected call volumes will have a negative impact on current Mesa Fire and Medical Department assets and response capacity. Unit availability will decrease and response times will increase from the additional pressures of responding to county islands.  It is estimated that the unincorporated county islands will produce approximately 4,800 -5,200 calls annually that, with no additional MFMD response assets or infrastructure, would place a considerable strain upon ongoing operations to those stations that adjoin those areas.  In addition, most of the unincorporated lands will fall outside current four minute (first arriving) and eight minute (Effective Response Force) travel time response areas indicating longer response times in the county islands could reasonably be expected.

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INTRODUCTION

The following document is the Mesa Fire and Medical Department’s risk assessment and service demand analysis for fire and emergency medical response into the unincorporated areas of Maricopa County within the City of Mesa boundaries should the situation arise where MFMD becomes the primary provider in those areas. The county islands encompass about 50 square miles of land area, 17,668 parcels of property and a year round population of approximately 25,000 people. Fire Suppression, Emergency Medical Services and other rescue activities are currently provided by Rural/Metro Corporation and its subsidiaries. Mesa Fire and Medical Department maintains a mutual aid agreement with Rural/Metro Fire Department and responds into the unincorporated areas when requested to do so. Rural/Metro currently has two engine companies staffed with 3 person crews covering the noted area.

The Mesa Fire and Medical Department is a full service ‘All Hazards’ organization that is mandated by the citizens of Mesa, through their elected officials, to provide the highest level of pre-hospital emergency medical care, fire suppression, community health and rescue services. The Mesa Fire and Medical Department has adopted the standards set forth in NFPA 1710 as industry best practice and uses those standards to set necessary benchmarks and guidelines. That said, the citizens of Mesa also expect department planners to be innovative and progressive in finding ways to provide the highest level of service in the most cost effective way possible recognizing there is no “one size fits all solution”.

The following report will include an overview of the projected service demand of the unincorporated areas and its possible effect on the distribution and concentration of the fixed and mobile resources of the Mesa Fire and Medical Department. In addition, the topics of risk analysis, critical task analysis and service level objectives will be discussed.

Methodology

The information contained in this report came from multiple databases and was verified using more than one source wherever possible. City of Mesa GIS was instrumental in providing the infrastructure overlays and the underlying information contained in those maps. Mesa Fire and Medical Department Technical Services provided the incident response maps and assisted in some of the database queries. Every attempt was made to examine the current service demand in the county islands experienced by Rural/Metro Fire Department and its subsidiaries, however to this point we have been unable to acquire that information from them. In addition, some aspects of the infrastructure, such as unimproved roads and their characteristics are difficult to assess with any accuracy and have not been included here to prevent the possibility of decisions being made based on unreliable information.

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MESA FIRE AND MEDICAL DEPARTMENT MISSION STATEMENT

We will provide our customers (the residents, businesses, and visitors of Mesa) with the highest level of protection against the loss of life and property. We recognize that we are an integral part of the community and are sensitive and responsive to neighborhood needs and priorities.

We are dedicated to service as highly trained professionals in all aspects of rescue, emergency medical services, fire prevention and suppression, and the control of hazardous situations.

We uphold this commitment through quality emergency services and proactive emphasis on public education, code enforcement, hazard investigation, innovative fire and life safety awareness, and community service. This quality is supported through our commitment to maintain a positive, productive, and healthy work force through which these services are delivered.

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Risk Assessment

Area Familiarization

The unincorporated Maricopa County islands within the City of Mesa boundaries cover an area of roughly 50 square miles with a year round population of approximately 25,000+ residents (2010 census). The majority of the population and land area of the county islands occurs east of Power Road and much of it borders Pinal County on the eastern edge of the city. Topography is similar to the rest of the city with much of the area in the far south and northeast being sparsely populated natural desert or farm land.

Transportation Network

The arterial roadways that exist within the city generally remain intact through the county islands providing unhindered travel through those areas. The notable exception is Recker Road between Broadway and Southern that does not go through in the Leisure World community. This limits access to that area and its 2,664 parcels to two entry points. Most of the feeder roads also remain consistent with city streets except for some of the more under-developed areas that have dirt or poorly maintained private roads. There are no airports, major freight/passenger rail lines or navigable water ways.

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6 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research

The Loop 202 is currently the only major highway that cuts through the county land and it runs between University Drive and Southern Avenue at about the Ellsworth Road alignment.

Risk Classification

Risk hazards have been identified for all occupancies within the City of Mesa. This assessment follows the guidelines of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International Self-Assessment Manual 3.0. These classifications are based on building occupancy and are divided into the following four categories:

- Low - Moderate - High - Maximum

These same categories can be applied to the land usage in the county lands, with occupancies shown in the map below. The following page contains the Mesa Fire and Medical Department Risk Classification matrix that provides examples of occupancies in each risk classification.

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8 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research

Hydrant and Water Infrastructure

Another important consideration in the risk analysis is the state of the water main and hydrant infrastructure. Many of these mains were placed by City of Mesa and some of these water lines have been placed and operated by Arizona Water Company, a private provider. In 2006 the minimum fire flow requirement changed and these are also illustrated on the following maps. In the areas with little or no hydrant coverage a Water Tender is included in structure assignments dispatched and that would be pre-mapped in the CAD system. We have one Water Tender available at Mesa Fire Station 213 and one available via Automatic Aid from Apache Junction Fire District (261). Currently Water Tender 213 is not constant manned and is not always available for response depending on the status of the parent engine company. Both Water Tender 213 and 261 are housed in stations that are in good locations to cover most of the county islands with a reasonable code 2 response time provided manpower is available for response.

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10 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research

SERVICE DEMAND

Calls for Service

The Mesa Fire and Medical Department maintains a Mutual Aid agreement with the Rural/Metro Corporation to assist with fire and emergency medical response when a request is made to the Mesa Dispatch and Deployment Communications Center. Due to differences in staffing, equipment and communications capabilities, MFMD will dispatch a full structure assignment (3 engines & 1 ladder) when requested to respond to working fire or special operations emergencies. For example, if Rural/Metro requests assistance on a working house fire and they have two engine companies responding, Mesa alarm will dispatch the standard 3 and 1 structure assignment (3 engines and 1 ladder) to assist. This is done for reasons of fire ground safety and accountability for the personnel of both agencies as this allows the Incident Commander to seamlessly integrate all companies into the Incident Command System.

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For calendar year 2012 MFMD units responded into county islands 292 times. As noted previously we have not been able to positively verify the number of emergency responses by Rural/Metro Fire Department.

Structure Fire Critical Task Analysis

In the Phoenix Metro (Valley Wide) automatic aid system, in which the Mesa Fire and Medical Department is a participant, a standard structure response is initially dispatched to all reported structure fire incidents regardless of risk classification. Since parcels in un-incorporated areas have had no risk assessment completed this will continue to be best practice for dispatch in those areas. This system, which has evolved over decades, has proven highly effective at providing the appropriate Effective Response Force while managing resources in a metro/urban environment with high call volumes.

When conducting structural firefighting operations in the Offensive strategy, the primary operational benchmarks are to obtain an ‘All Clear’ (search & rescue), ‘Fire Control‘(knock down/extinguishment) and ‘Loss Stopped’ (property conservation). We know through experience and practical knowledge the first two benchmarks must be attained by the initial 3 or 4 units on scene to successfully maintain offensive firefighting operations regardless of occupancy and responding alarm level. Fires without sufficient water applied within the first 8 minutes usually grow to the point of flashover and structural members in light weight constructed buildings begin to fail. Given this fireground fact, if the first two interior attack lines and the initial attempt at ventilation are not successful or do not occur within that time period the chances of confining the fire to room or area of origin is negligible and a poor outcome is likely. The current system of requesting additional resources over and above the initial structure assignment based on actual need has proven highly effective for providing back up companies in an orderly and timely fashion to be integrated into the Incident Command System and properly accounted for in the hazard zone. The following tables illustrating critical tasks on the fireground reflect the above operational principles:

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Effective Response Force-Critical tasks

Response 3-1 Structure Working Fire 1st Alarm Fire Assignment Assignment Search and Rescue / 2 4 4 Fire Attack Back up line / Search 4 5 4-6 and Rescue Water Supply 1 2 2 Pump Operator 1 2 2 Ventilation 3 3 4 Utilities 1 1 1 Ladder Operations Varies Varies Varies Incident Command 2 2 4 Safety 2 2 4 Rescue/IMC 4 4 4-8 Lobby - - 1 Rehab - 1 – 5 (summer) 1 – 5 (summer) Exposure Protection Varies Varies Varies Salvage/Overhaul Varies Varies Varies Forcible Entry - 1 1-2 Total Resources 20 27-31 32-39 Critical Task Low and Moderate and High and Structure Examples Moderate Risk High Risk Maximum Risk

Projected Response Demand and Delivery

The ability to analyze the impact on current resources if the emergency response into unincorporated county islands became the primary responsibility of the Mesa Fire and Medical Department without reliable historical data is limited. However, we can do some projections of response times and examine capacity of the surrounding fire stations and apparatus based on their current call volume data. The following two maps show the 4 minute single unit travel time areas and the 8 minute structure Effective Response Force (3 engines, 1 ladder & 1 Command Officer) travel time coverage. These are based on current distribution and concentration of fixed and mobile assets as well as factors involving the transportation network. It is obvious that most of the county land area (grey shaded) falls outside both response standards.

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14 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research

Resource Distribution and Concentration

The Mesa Fire and Medical Department strives to keep an adequate distribution and concentration of resources throughout the city to provide for the safety of our citizens and visitors. Distribution is the geographic location of resources and is reflected by the 4 minute first due response map. Concentration is the assembling of the proper quantity of resources at a scene to effectively mitigate the situation. The measurement of concentration is the time it takes the Effective Response Force to arrive in 8 minutes or less travel time to an incident. In this case MFMD uses 3 Engines, 1 Ladder and 1 Command Unit as the initial ERF for a structure fire assignment. The time standards of 4 minutes for first arriving unit (all responses) and 8 minutes for the ERF (structure fire responses) are based on the following criteria:

- Clinical brain death occurs in 4-6 minutes for a non-breathing patient - A cardiac arrest patient’s chances for survival decreases 10% for each minute without effective CPR or Defibrillation - Flashover can occur within 5-8 minutes of a residential structure fire

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- Lightweight truss systems (roofs) can fail within 10 minutes during a structure fire causing building collapse.

Current Response Capacity

The Mesa Fire and Medical Department strives to maintain an annual call volume per apparatus of 2,500 calls. This has been determined to be optimal so crews are able to train, exercise, perform business inspections, school programs, etc. and still are available to respond to emergency calls in their station area most of the time. As call volumes increase these other activities cease and their availability to respond in their station area begins to drop because they are already committed to other calls. Many of the units bordering the county lands are already well beyond the 2,500 call threshold. Below is an example of projected excess capacity to respond for several fire stations bordering county islands:

3000 2500 Run Level 324 1539 868 2500

2000

1500

1000

500

2643 2722 2176 961 1632 0 Eng 209 Ladder 209 Eng 213 Eng 216 Eng 217

The station that is not represented in the above graph is 220, which currently houses two apparatus and is adjacent to one of the higher call demand areas of Leisure World and Velda Rose. This station opened in the late fall of 2012 and is projected to run over 5,000 calls for 2013, leaving little excess capacity.

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While some capacity exists, adding significant call volumes to the current resources would impact their ability to respond to calls in their currently assigned service areas.

From a historical perspective using Mesa Fire and Medical response data we expect the heaviest response demand to occur in areas of highest population densities, single and multi-family dwellings and areas with a concentration of care facilities or retirement neighborhoods. Using these guidelines it could be predicted that the highest call volumes would occur in the Main Street/Broadway Road corridor between Sossaman and Meridian Roads. Also, using areas in the city with similar population and demographics as a model, the two retirement communities between Higley and Power Roads could generate a conservatively estimated 1,000 to 1,500 calls per year between the two of them. As an example of how similar projections can be done, Plat 77 which is the square mile between University and Broadway and Greenfield and Higley had 676 responses by MFMD for calendar year 2012. This plat is made up primarily of manufactured home retirement communities similar to those found in nearby plat 92 which is a county island, so we could expect a similar service demand to occur. Using this

17 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research method of comparing areas of the city with comparable land use and population densities with adjacent unincorporated lands, an estimated annual call volume of between 4,800 and 5,200 would be added to the system. Another factor to consider when estimating service demand is skilled elderly care facilities or nursing homes. Currently 18 of the top 20 dispatch locations in the City of Mesa are care facilities. There are seven of these facilities currently being serviced by Rural/Metro in the unincorporated county islands with their locations shown on the map below:

The Rural/Metro Corporation currently services the demand in these areas with two engine companies (E857, E859) out of two fire stations, each of which also houses an ambulance. Additional ambulance transportation needs generally come from Southwest Ambulance resources based in Mesa. In the event of a structure fire or large scale medical incident the next closest Rural/Metro engine company responds from Ocotillo and Meridian Road where it is stationed.

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Conclusion

The response time mapping, asset distribution and location information in this report is presented with the assumption there will be no additional fire department infrastructure placed to absorb increased call volume from the county islands should the contingency arise that MFMD would become the primary service provider in those areas. As illustrated in the 4 minute and 8 minute travel time maps, much of the county island area is not adequately covered by existing stations or apparatus.

Analysis of the information presented makes it fair to conclude that even though there is some additional response capacity with existing Mesa Fire and Medical resources that can deliver service into the county islands, there is also significant potential to increase overall response times and unit availability in current service areas.

As noted previously, service demand in the county islands as a whole could be as high as 5,000+ responses annually. The accuracy of this estimate is demonstrated by the fact that Rural/Metro Corporation continues to operate two engine companies and maintain a station house in the East Mesa area. The most significant impact to response times would be in the far eastern portion of the Main Street/Broadway Road corridor where no Mesa Fire and Medical Department assets currently exist, therefore predicted response times to those parcels will be much longer. In addition, the impact of unfamiliar and un-inspected buildings could have a safety impact on response personnel that is difficult to quantify but will need to be addressed with proper training. Using widely accepted unit utilization standards as a point of reference, the addition of two Advanced Life Support (ALS) fire companies, as well staffing of the Water Tender, would likely be required to provide a consistent level of emergency service at acceptable response times to the unincorporated land areas.

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MESA FIRE AND MEDICAL DEPARTMENT

COUNTY ISLAND FIRE PROTECTION ANALYSIS ADDENDUM OPERATIONAL CONTINGENCY PLAN BRIEF

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PURPOSE

The purpose of this addendum is to outline the allocation of Mesa Fire and Medical Department physical assets and personnel services that would occur immediately following a notification of City of Mesa responsibility for providing emergency fire, medical and rescue services in the unincorporated county lands within Mesa boundaries as described in the County Island Fire Protection Analysis. The following outline has been reviewed and approved by the Executive Assistant Chief of Operations. Ostensibly, this contingency outline would be applicable for the first 90 days following onset of operations, however the allocation of certain physical assets such as apparatus and fire stations may be more permanent. Operationally there are three general areas that will be addressed: 1. Distribution of physical and personnel assets, 2. Dispatch and Deployment issues, 3. Cost analysis.

DISTRIBUTION OF ASSETS

There have been two reserve pumper apparatus identified by the department to fulfill the requirements of this contingency plan, both of which are currently housed at the Public Safety Training Facility with regular operational checks performed by the training staff. These apparatus (vehicle numbers 2537 and 2575) have a full complement of firefighting equipment with the exception of EMS gear which would be added if they went into full time service. Several factors were considered with regards to apparatus placement including projected demands for service in different portions of the county islands, response times, current placement of existing assets and availability of space at existing fire stations that could accommodate the additional apparatus and personnel. The plan is to house one Engine Company at FS 220 and the other at FS 212 while maintaining the Water Tender at FS 213. The recommendation to constant staff the Water Tender was made in the preceding analysis, however, the cost for that has not been included here. Any change in the placement of apparatus could occur after the initial 90 day operational period when a better assessment of actual call volumes could be made.

Initial staffing, certainly up to the 90 day planning period addressed in this outline, would be done through the use of overtime from MFMD constant staffing lists and paid for through the operations overtime budget. Since the additional apparatus will be integrated into the regular MFMD response plan it has been agreed that whenever possible these apparatus should be constant staffed to the same standard as any other department ALS fire suppression apparatus with one Captain, one Engineer and two Firefighters, two of the four shall be paramedics.

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DISPATCH AND DEPLOYMENT

From the perspective of Dispatch and Deployment the implementation of this contingency plan would have limited effect on current operations. Some lead time would be needed to make sure the new apparatus are added to the G2 systems and are being properly encoded at the assigned fire stations. The primary change would be the fact that 911 calls received from the county lands would initially hit MCSO and would be transferred to fire communications for dispatch through a hot transfer link that is already established.

COST ANALYSIS

The primary costs associated with the implementation of this contingency plan are personnel services and apparatus operational and maintenance costs. In addition, ancillary costs that could be incurred by Dispatch and Deployment and Resource Management were examined. The estimated cost for constant staffing on an overtime basis per apparatus is $5,205 for a 24 hour shift with the recommended staffing levels, which equates to $1,899,825 annually per apparatus. This brings the total personnel services cost for the 90 day planning period to $949,914, or an estimated $3,799,650 annualized. The apparatus cost for the two pumper apparatus is $3.49 per mile based on 18,000 miles per year, which equates to $62,820 per year per apparatus including fuel, for a total annualized cost of $125,640 for both pumpers. Since the apparatus will be housed in existing stations there is no additional infrastructure costs built in for fire stations. Initial conversations with Resource Management and Dispatch and Deployment indicate there are no material costs associated with the implementation of this contingency plan for the 90 day planning window and probably none on a long term basis. A long term consideration would be the replacement cycle of these two apparatus which are older and would not have the full life span of a new apparatus placed in that position. Total annual operating cost for personnel services and apparatus operation would be approximately $4 million or about $1 million for the 90 day contingency period.

The following page contains a map that clearly shows the current MFMD fire station assets in relationship to the unincorporated county lands.

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23 Mesa Fire and Medical Department Planning & Research