Standards of Cover
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Lr STANDARDS OF COVER We, the Los Alamos County Fire Department, are committed to the safety and welfare of everyone in our diverse community. We promise exceptional services in the preservation of life, the environment, and property. Los Alamos County Fire Department Standards of Cover Contributors Doug Tucker, Fire Chief Michael Thompson, Acting Deputy Fire Chief Mark Sandoval, Assistant Chief of EMS and Training E. Henry Ortiz, Acting Assistant Chief/Fire Marshal Justin Grider, Battalion Chief of EMS Justin Cassel, Battalion Chief of Training Allen Sanchez, Acting Battalion Chief of Safety Richard Garcia, Battalion Chief/Operations Dennis Martinez, Battalion Chief/Operations Glenn Trehern, Battalion Chief/Operations Kelly Grace-Meyer, Captain/HazMat Technician Aaron Adair, Captain Larry Romero, Lieutenant Scott Hofmann, Driver Engineer Kelly Sterna, Driver Engineer Wes Walker, Driver Engineer Norma Jean Valdez, Accreditation Manager Vivian Medina, Acting Management Analyst Donna McHenry, EMS Training Coordinator Louisa Martinez, CAD/Graphics Specialist Yvette Vigil, Senior Office Specialist Jill Carothers, Management Analyst, LAC Transportation Division Joel Pearson, GIS Services, LAC IT Department March 2010 Introduction The purpose of this document is to serve as an overall blueprint for the Los Alamos Fire Department’s (LAFD or Department) mandate to protect lives, the environment, and the property of the public it serves. The LAFD mission statement is an integral part of that blueprint in that it provides a succinct explanation as to our purpose. LAFD MISSION STATEMENT “We, the Los Alamos County Fire Department, are committed to the safety and welfare of everyone in our diverse community. We promise exceptional services in the preservation of life, the environment, and property.” The strategies employed to achieve our mission are defined throughout this and other supportive documents. LAFD’s Standards of Cover was developed with life safety as the overall objective while keeping the following risk management statement at the forefront of our ambition. “We will risk a lot to save savable lives. We will risk a little to save savable property. We will risk nothing to save that which has already been lost.” Due to the nature of our department, a unique challenge is presented to us as service providers in as much as we are in a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to provide fire protection service to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Los Alamos County (LAC or County) will use guidance from National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) documents in developing LAFD’s overall policies and practices. Certain issues involving national security arise when discussing DOE facilities; therefore discussion may be limited as appropriate. When developing a “Standards of Cover” document for the LAFD, wildland urban interface response must be considered. During wildland fire season, typically from April to September, the entire community is designated as “High Risk” regardless of neighborhood demographics. With thousands of acres of wildland encroaching on several neighborhoods within Los Alamos, a special mitigation project has been implemented and is ongoing to reduce the hazard to the community. The remainder of this document is intended to provide a snapshot of the department’s level of service objectives to the County and should be regarded as a “working document” subject to the dynamic nature of the fire service as technologies and practices change to accommodate the wants and needs of the customers we serve. Certain assumptions must therefore be made including the assumption that response travel times to critical LANL facilities begin when an apparatus leaves a fire station or when it is announced that a particular unit is “En-route” and ends when an apparatus has arrived at a staging area, or security barrier from which access to the facility may be delayed while appropriate security and/or safety protocols are followed. This document will include 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 overall assessment evaluates 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, and disasters both natural and manmade. The methodology used was a systems approach to deployment rather than the one-size- fits-all prescriptive formula. An evaluation was conducted to match local needs or risks and expectations with expected outcomes. The data contained in this Standard of Cover document should provide the leaders of Los Alamos with the information necessary to understand and make decisions upon an effective delivery system for an “all-risk” environment. LOS ALAMOS COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT Standards of Cover TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary................................................................................................ 1 Section A. Description of Community Served..........................................................................5 History of Los Alamos Fire Department ................................................................................5 Governance .............................................................................................................................6 Geography.............................................................................................................................10 Climate ................................................................................................................................11 Housing Background ............................................................................................................12 Existing Conditions and Potential Development ..................................................................13 Transportation.......................................................................................................................14 Section B. Services Provided ..................................................................................................20 Organizational Structure and Divisional Goals ....................................................................20 Available Facilities, Personnel, Equipment & Apparatus ....................................................24 Fire Suppression....................................................................................................................34 Wildland................................................................................................................................35 Rescue/Technical Rescue......................................................................................................36 Emergency Medical Services................................................................................................37 Training and Certifications ...................................................................................................43 Communications ...................................................................................................................44 Fire and Life Safety Management.........................................................................................44 Operations and Response......................................................................................................47 Response and Alarm Assignments Schedule........................................................................48 Section C. Community Expectations and Performance Goals..............................................54 Customer Priorities ...............................................................................................................54 Customer Expectations .........................................................................................................55 Positive Customer Feedback.................................................................................................56 ISO Classification .................................................................................................................57 Census Population Maps.......................................................................................................58 Section D. Community Risk Assessment and Risk Levels.....................................................60 Risk Assessment Model........................................................................................................60 Risk Assessment Natural Hazards ........................................................................................60 Hazards Identification...........................................................................................................61 Disaster Declaration History.................................................................................................62 Wildfires Risk Assessment ...................................................................................................63 Severe Weather .....................................................................................................................69 District Analysis (Zone Analysis).........................................................................................89