Standards of Response Coverage Commission
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Commission on Fire Accreditation International Standards of Response Coverage February 2005 San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Standard of Coverage Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... i Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 Executive Summary............................................................................................................... 3 Definitions............................................................................................................................... 6 Community Baselines ............................................................................................................ 8 Community Overview.................................................................................................. 9 Governance of the City of San Diego.......................................................................... 13 Current Levels of Service ............................................................................................ 14 Risk Assessment ..................................................................................................................... 22 Current Standards, Goals, Objectives ................................................................................. 36 Critical Task Capability........................................................................................................ 52 Setting Service Level Objectives........................................................................................... 58 Distribution Criteria..................................................................................................... 59 Concentration Criteria.................................................................................................. 65 Reliability Study …………………………………………………………………………… ................... 67 Drawdown.................................................................................................................... 69 Resource Exhaustion.................................................................................................... 71 Historical Performance ................................................................................................ 72 Overall Evaluation....................................................................................................... 87 Policy Recommendations....................................................................................................... 91 Appendices.............................................................................................................................. Appendix A1 - Council District Map........................................................................... 95 Appendix A2 – Organizational Chart for City of San Diego ...................................... 96 i San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Standard of Coverage Appendix A3 – Daily Staffing Requirement ............................................................... 97 Appendix A4 – Fire Station Locations ........................................................................ 98 Appendix A5 – Battalion Districts............................................................................... 99 Appendix A6 – Station Districts Map.......................................................................... 100 Appendix A7 – Truck Company Districts ................................................................... 101 Appendix A8 – Position Classification Listing ........................................................... 102 Appendix A9 – Fleet Inventory ................................................................................... 105 Appendix B1 – Daytime Population Map.................................................................... 112 Appendix B2 – Nighttime Population Map ................................................................. 113 Appendix B3 – Fire Problem Utility ........................................................................... 114 Appendix B4 – Fire Risk Severity Map....................................................................... 122 Appendix B5 – Fire Risk Analysis ............................................................................. 123 Appendix C1 – Workload Distribution........................................................................ 128 Appendix D1 –Resource Request Guidelines.............................................................. 135 Appendix D2 – Structure Fire Average Engine Response Map .................................. 147 Appendix D3 – Fractal Response Data........................................................................ 148 Appendix D4 – Structure Fire Five Minute Response Coverage ................................ 150 Appendix D5 – Medical Eight Minute Response Map................................................ 151 Appendix D6 – Medical Contract Compliance Report................................................ 152 Appendix D7 – Medical Five Minute Response Coverage ......................................... 156 Appendix D8 – Structure Fire Nine Minute Truck Response Map ............................. 157 Appendix D9 - Effective Response Force Table ......................................................... 158 Appendix D10 – Effective Response Force Map ....................................................... 160 Appendix D11 – Structure Fire Incident Map ............................................................. 161 Appendix D12 – Unit Unavailability by Station.......................................................... 162 Appendix D13 – City of San Diego Planning Area Forecast for 2030........................ 163 ii San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Standard of Coverage Introduction One of the major issues the fire service has struggled with in the past decade is defining levels of service. It has been considered essential to determine whether a fire agency is prepared to provide a level of service commensurate with its responsibilities, risks, and adopted service level objectives. In the absence of such an analysis by the fire service, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) proposed a deployment standard that was successfully adopted as NFPA 1710. This national deployment standard does not, however, recognize local issues, conditions, service demands or community needs. Additionally, very few departments in this country can meet the response time and staffing level outlined in the standard, including San Diego. Hence, many fire service professionals view this deployment model as a goal. The San Diego Fire-Rescue department, under the leadership of Fire Chief Jeff Bowman, recognized the need to evaluate its performance as a means to improve quality and performance and to ensure community needs were met. Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach as in NFPA 1710, the decision was made to pursue Fire Service Accreditation. The national Fire Service Accreditation system is designed to evaluate the performance of a fire agency to determine if the programs and services provided are effective in meeting the needs of the community it protects. This system includes a critical analysis of historical data, existing and proposed deployment strategies, distribution and concentration of resources based on time parameters, identification of community risks and expectations, and collection of data on reliability of response. The governing body for the accreditation process is the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI). The accreditation process includes three major elements: strategic planning, self-assessment and risk assessment/standard of response coverage. The department began its strategic planning process in March of 2003, completing the process with the development of its first-ever Five- Year Strategic Plan in June of 2004. The self-assessment component was initiated in June of 2003, which included an in-depth analysis to measure all of the department’s major programs or services against 301 performance criteria outlined in the CFAI guiding document. This phase of the accreditation project was completed in October of 2004. Another companion document and requirement for agencies which pursue accreditation is the Standard of Response Cover Plan. The Standard of Response Cover is defined as the written policies and procedures that determine the distribution, concentration and reliability of fixed and mobile resources of the department to respond to an “all-risk” environment. This is a critical element of Fire Accreditation as it represents the evaluation and/or creation of standards for response coverage. This document is provided to serve as the San Diego Fire-Rescue’s Standard of Response Coverage Plan. The purpose of this document is to define the level of service based on a comprehensive study of the department’s historical performance, community risk factors and expectations, and existing and proposed deployment strategies. 1 San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Standard of Coverage The overall assessment evaluated the department’s ability to provide adequate resources to respond to an “all-risk” environment including fire and non-fire incidents such as emergency medical, hazardous material, technical rescue, aircraft and shipboard rescue, disasters both natural and manmade, and swift water. In order to translate these efforts into terms that the community and elected officials