The Monthly Newsletter for the Urbandale Fire Department... July 2017 On the Line Our Core Values: Pride, Respect, Duty, Unity, Integrity and Compassion. In This Issue… Upcoming Events Where The Rubber Meets the Road—A/C September 11th Lyon…................................................................ 2 9/11 Presentation—Station 42 Around the Department…….…….……...…..... 3 Prevention/Training Efforts…………………… 3 October 8th Safety Incidents………………..………………… 4 “Bells Across America” ceremony—Station 42 You’ve Been Caught Letters…………………... 4 Be sure to check the pub-Ed calendars for Safety Tips……………...…….…….……...…..... 5 upcoming events! Member Profile: Logan Derry……..….……….. 5 Trivia………………………………………………. 1/6 Training Calendar……………………………. 7 UFD statistics for June Jeff Gilchrist July 26 Calls for service: 315 YTD: 1,731 Average response Time – Emergency incidents: 6 Scott Lyon August 1 minutes 31 seconds Emergency Medical Service calls: 207 Average Emergency Response Time EMS: 5 minutes 58 seconds Fire Service Trivia….June 2017 Fire related calls: 108 Q: So last month we talked about EMS and Fire movies. This month, we’ll focus on fire-rescue or paramedic TV shows. Average Response Time Fire: 7 minutes 20 seconds Can you match each Fire, EMS, or Rescue television character with their series? For double bonus, can you name the rank for each character (hint: none of the five Turnout time: 83.28% of calls out the door in 120 sec- held the same rank or job position) onds A. Doc 1. Chicago Fire We received mutual aid 10 times – 6 times for EMS B. Hermann 2. Code Red calls and 4 times for fire calls. C. Lou 3. Emergency! D. Rorchek 4. Rescue Me We provided mutual aid 18 times – 9 times for fire E. Stoker 5. Third Watch calls and 9 times for EMS calls. Urbandale Fire Department · On the Line · July 2017· 1 ON THE LINE Where The Rubber Meet The Road- Fire Department Accreditation – Chief Scott Lyon Throughout my tenure at the Urbandale Fire Department A few weeks ago the Urbandale Fire Department became a it has been made clear that we are a data driven and cus- Registered Agency with CPSE. Taking this action repre- tomer service based organization. Rarely does a week go sents a significant step that begins the evaluation and by that our customers don’t reach out in some way to say eventual accreditation of our fire department. As the Ac- “thanks”. I also routinely witness all of your efforts in creditation Manager for the Fire Department, I will aid in treating people right. There is no question that our organ- the coordination of our department’s self-assessment, risk ization believes in going the extra mile and much of the assessment, planning, and review our Standards of Cover community appreciates what we do. document. So if the community “buys in” Here are the take some key to how we treat them, what points about accreditation; about the data and why does it matter? As an organization it 1. This is a very positive step is easy to claim that we are for the fire department. In one of the best fire depart- this process we will demon- ments around (we are!) but strate our current practices, does us making this claim improve on those that are not have any value? Simply where they should be, and be watching television will an- evaluated by an independent swer this question- Ford says source. they have the best pickup truck, so does Chevy, and even 2. A lot of work will need to be done, but it is meaningful Dodge! The message here is very basic; simply saying that and worth the effort. you are the best means nothing. To avoid this type of bias 3. Participating in the CPSE Accreditation process is a professional organizations seek validation from third par- key indicator of an organization’s growth and maturity ties. Public safety agencies have a responsibility to sup- as we are willing to share our successes, short- port the data they keep by ensuring that meaningful ac- comings, and improvement plans with others. tions take place that relate to the data. 4. This process helps chart the path of the future of the organization. Police departments have the Commission on Accreditation 5. We will be evaluated at the end of the initial accredita- for Law Enforcement (CALEA), which in 2016 was granted tion. This is where the rubber meets the road. During to the Urbandale Police Department. The Urbandale Pub- this step the CPSE will determine if we are doing what lic Library is accredited by State Library of Iowa, and the we said we were going to do, if we are not they will Urbandale Chamber of Commerce is one of only five ac- seek answers to how we will achieve our stated goals. credited chambers in the state of Iowa (2016). Agency ac- creditation has obviously become a priority within our community and now it is the fire departments opportunity to achieve accreditation through the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE). Only a hand full of fire depart- ments are accredited in Iowa. The fire service is not short on consensus standards like those found in NFPA or in a fire department grading method such as ISO. While each of these organizations provide quality guidance (most of the time) they both lack key components that accreditation can provide. In fact ISO has made clear that their purpose is to be an insur- ance rating tool, which is important. ISO also examines organizations in the past tense- what have you done and what do you currently have. CPSE Accreditation views the organization in much broader terms and benchmarks are set by the organization through an examination of the or- ganization’s strengths, weakness, and needs. The ultimate goal of CPSE Accreditation is continuous improvement that evaluates the performance of the organization. This process ensures that we take a critical look at how we are performing as an entire organization and take action steps to improve upon areas in which we fall short. Urbandale Fire Department · On the Line · July 2017· 2 ON THE LINE Other programs/training/projects completed by UFD in June: Training Report: 502 hours of training were completed in June Fire Training: 327 hours EMS Training: 165 hours Prevention & Inspection Activities: Completed 16 inspections Completed 16 re-inspections Completed 5 preplans Conducted 28 plan reviews Conducted public education/PR for 1,147 people (709 children & 438 adults) Replaced 15 smoke detectors and detector batteries Conducted 7 Car Seat checks What’s Happening Around the Department… As we begin our new budget on July 1, it is already time to begin the process of preparing for the FY 18-19 budget. Now is the time to be gathering information about items you think are needed. With that, we need complete cost and justification and your work should be thorough. All cost should be included with consideration of on-going cost, associated cost, future cost and the cost to purchase should be nailed down so that nothing is missed. Justification should include how it would improve operational efficiency, safety, customer service, etc. and must be detailed to show the need. Suggested budget items will need to be discussed with your supervisor to gain approval before putting in the efforts to gather all of the needed data. All budget items should be completed and forwarded to the Fire Chief by August 15, 2017. The goal is to complete the FD budget process by September 15, 2017. As noted in Chief Lyon’s article, the department has become a registered agency. This formally marks our efforts to move toward becoming an accredited agency. The rewards are great and the work to make it happen is hard and rewarding. Eve- ryone will play a role in the process of preparing our department for the accreditation process. We are looking for those who are interested in helping out. There will be OT available as well as a great deal of professional development. If you think you are up to the challenge, reach out to Chief Lyon and let him know that you have an interest in serving. The FEH report is due back in early July on the proposed Station 43 design and cost. Once that is presented to the City Council, we will have information that we will begin to use in our efforts to educate the public. Stay tuned… There are several new initiatives included in the new budget. One item is the installation of new electronic Knox Box Key holders. These will be purchased and installed as soon as Knox releases the new boxes for purchase. Originally planned for a July release, Knox has informed us that the boxes will not be available until January 2018. This initiative was brought for- ward by Bryce Landers as part of last year’s budget process. Another aspect of this project is the addition of Clive FD’s Knox Box keys to our new system. The new system will have access for two Knox Box keys. Congratulations! Jeremy Rosenau – for success- fully completing paramedic certi- fication. Urbandale Fire Department · On the Line · July 2017· 3 ON THE LINE “You’ve Been Caught Doing An Outstanding Job” We continue to recognize your efforts. Whenever we receive a thank you letter, card or a phone call, we pass that along to the people involved in the form of a “You’ve Been Caught Doing An Outstanding Job” letter. As of July 1st, we have sent 101 notices to our personnel. The following people received “You’ve Been Caught” notices since our last newslet- ter: We received two pizzas and two boxes of cookies from Michelle Kritenbrink-Foley at 7318 Monroe Ct.