Performance Audit Arkansas Fire Safety Personnel, Training, and Equipment Preparedness ARKANSAS DIVISION OF LEGISLATIVE AUDIT June 12, 2003 Members of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee: We have conducted a performance audit to inform the Committee of Arkansas’ overall fire safety preparedness in the areas of personnel, training, and equipment. In addition to examining preparedness, it is the intention of this report to make recommendations where the State as a whole can further assist small communities in achieving a higher standard of readiness. This audit was performed in accordance with the applicable standards contained in Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to provide sufficient, competent, and relevant evidence to achieve the objectives of the audit. We trust the information in this report will assist you in your legislative decision making process. DIVISION OF LEGISLATIVE AUDIT Charles L. Robinson, CPA, CFE Legislative Auditor February 11, 2003 PSPE01302 Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit Executive Summary Arkansas Fire Safety - Personnel, Training, and Equipment Preparedness INTRODUCTION While fire protection services have traditionally been considered a local issue, preparedness becomes a statewide issue when citizens travel around the State. This report is being issued to inform the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee (LJAC) of Arkansas’ overall fire safety preparedness in the areas of personnel, training, and equipment. This report also discusses the services provided by and the needs of local paid and volunteer fire departments. In addition to examining preparedness, it is the intention of this report to make recommendations where the State as a whole can further assist small communities in achieving a higher standard of readiness. OBJECTIVES Our objectives in conducting this performance audit were as follows: Detail the services provided by local fire departments; Analyze the sources and adequacy of funding at local departments; Evaluate the staffing, training, and equipment available in Arkansas’ communities; and Determine the importance and impact of the Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) Rating in continuing to improve Arkansas fire departments. SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY We interviewed representatives from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management’s Office of Fire Services, the Arkansas Fire Training Academy, the Arkansas Forestry Commission, the Department of Rural Services, a representative sample of Arkansas fire departments, and the Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) evaluator for Arkansas. We per- formed reviews of the individual fire departments’ records and Office of Fire Service records related to funding, training certification, salary structures, performance records, and equipment listings. i Arkansas Fire Safety – Personnel, Training, and Equipment Preparedness CONCLUSIONS Our review resulted in the following conclusions and recommendations: Department of Emergency Management – Office of Fire Services • The organization of fire services at the state level is The distributed among nine (9) separate and distinct organization of agencies, boards, and commissions – each serving a fire services at different function and providing oversight for a different the state level is area of fire services. Many fire departments, especially distributed the volunteer departments whose members have among nine (9) separate full time jobs, do not have the time nor the separate and resources to make themselves aware of grant and distinct training opportunities that are available from each of these nine (9) different agencies. Additionally, many agencies, departments we interviewed requested state assistance boards, and in grant writing. Many feel that grant awards are based commissions… upon their grant writing skills. Some we spoke with felt intimidated by the cumbersome grant application forms. A single office in a central location with a small fulltime staff could provide expert grant-writing assistance for all of Arkansas’ local fire departments, thereby allowing local departments in the State to become more A single office competitive in receiving grants by aggressively pursuing in a central Federal and private grant opportunities that are available location… could nationwide. A centralized grant writing office at the provide expert Arkansas Department of Emergency Management’s grant-writing Office of Fire Services could serve all the departments assistance for across the state. all of Arkansas’ With a current staff of three (3), we recommend the local fire Arkansas Department of Emergency Management’s departments... Office of Fire Services be expanded to include grant- writing personnel and more broadly promote itself to local fire departments as a single contact for obtaining information related to Federal, State, and private grants and training opportunities that are available to them. Management Response: Arkansas Department of Emergency Management concurs with the recommendation. • Act 1303 of 1993 (Arkansas Code Annotated 20-22- 1006) requires the Department of Emergency Management’s Office of Fire Services to develop a comprehensive program for the coordination of resources of the State of Arkansas and its local governments into a plan to be referred to as the ii Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit “Arkansas Fire Protection Services Resources Plan.” We found no indication that the Office of Fire Services had developed the plan as required. Management Response: Act 1303 of 1993 (Arkansas code Annotated 20-22-1006) was not funded to allow the addition of employees and expenditures needed to carry out the functions of [the Act]. • The most specific equipment need expressed by small departments is a defibrillator. A defibrillator is a small medical device that performs cardiac resuscitation. Several… Several of the departments recorded instances where departments lives were lost that might have been saved had a recorded defibrillator been present. In March 2003, the Office of EMS and Trauma Systems at the Arkansas Department instances where of Health is scheduled to release 172 defibrillators to live were lost local emergency service units purchased with Federal that might have funds provided by the United States Department of been saved had Health and Human Services. However, future Federal a defibrillator funding has not been secured and additional been present. defibrillators are necessary to meet the need in small communities. As shown in Appendix A, there are approximately 900 fire departments in Arkansas. As a result, we recommend the Office of Fire Services (in conjunction with our recommendation of grant writing consolidation) pursue additional grants and other sources of funding to allow additional departments to obtain this vital life saving tool. Currently, defibrillators cost an estimated $3,500.00 each. Management Response: ADEM commends The Arkansas Department of Health for their work on the [defibrillator] grant program for fire departments. For a fire department to respond with [a defibrillator], the fire department must be affiliated with an Emergency Medical Services and have the EMS’s Medical Director to sign off on the fire department, through the Arkansas Department of Health’s licensing. With expanded grant writing capability, ADEM will work with ADH to build an expanded [defibrillator] grant program. Arkansas Fire Training Academy • While classroom training is important, many fire department representatives we interviewed felt that it can never replace the experience gained from training in real-life situations simulated in a burn building. One Fire Chief of a paid department indicated that due to the improvements made in constructing and designing buildings, many of the firefighters that had been with his department for five (5) or less years had yet to iii Arkansas Fire Safety – Personnel, Training, and Equipment Preparedness experience a real structure fire. He stated the experi- …the ence of being inside a burning structure and the ability to experience of predict what a fire is going to do by listening to the fire is becoming a rare commodity and this lack of experience being inside a may have dire consequences in the future. As a result, a burning need was expressed by both large and small depart- structure and ments for the construction of burn buildings at additional the ability to training sites around the state. An additional reason for predict what a the need to increase the number of training sites is fire is going to training in burn buildings needs to be conducted do by listening frequently. Currently the distance to burn buildings, as to the fire is demonstrated in Exhibit IV on page 9, is restrictive to becoming a rare the amount of training that departments can afford to commodity… conduct. Training at a burn building requires a department to transport their firefighting equipment to the training site. For example, we noted in our visit to the northwest region of the state, firefighters from the growing cities of Bentonville and Rogers must travel in excess of one hour in one direction to reach the isolated Lincoln training facility managed by the Arkansas Fire Training Academy. Fire departments in the Delta region are especially disadvantaged. Stuttgart, for example, is at a distance in excess of 100 miles from either the Camden or Jonesboro training sites. Most departments cannot afford to have personnel and equipment absent from