Fire Council Meeting Minutes - Jan 12, 2021 1. Meeting was held once again at the Stillwater Building due to the health concerns. Some attended the meeting remotely. Introductions were made. 2. Minutes of prior meeting were approved. 3. Treasurer’s Report: We have $494.66 in our account. Annual dues notices were sent out the last week of Dec. 4. County Fire Chief: Commissioner Don Jones was introduced as the new county fire chief. He was presented the “official” firefighting handbook from Denis Pitman. 5. Covid Update: KC Williams said hospitals are currently not at capacity for Covid patients. Numbers are down. There is a prediction for another wave of cases over the next couple of months. Everyone is encouraged to get vaccinated, however number of available doses is unknown. 6. Resource Book: Travis Jones is still taking updates. Shepherd is the only one making recent updates. 7. Fund Raising: Brent Peters said there are several separate ideas for fundraising, and it is possible to do more than one of them. 1. Sell T-shirts, sweatshirts, and/or hats. 2. Laurel firefighter Sean McCleary makes leather goods such as radio or pager cases etc. He would give a portion of the sale price to the council. It was asked if he might consider traditional leather helmet fronts. 3. Sell calendars featuring each fire dept. on a particular month. 4. Sell wild land fire T-shirts for “staffed station” participants. Of four ideas presented, the calendar idea seemed to be preferred. Brent said it may be possible to get sponsors to cover printing costs. 8. Automatic Mutual Aid: Phil Ehlers talked briefly about the idea of expanding “auto-aid” from just grass fires to all types of calls county wide. Something like this could help with ISO ratings because resources from other depts. count as initial responding units under auto-aid. Billings Fire Dept. would like to be included in this plan. Phil will set up a fire chief’s meeting to discuss this idea. He would like everyone to consider ideas. He also wants to talk about this coming fire season’s staffed station plans. 9. DNRC: Jeff Brown is the acting FMO. DNRC is currently advertising for a permanent FMO and assistant FMO. Job applications are accepted until Jan 27. Jeff needs your wild land fire training requests. He is working on getting EFF job packets put together for dissemination to those interested in the staffed station program. Despite the legislature being in session, the Staffed Station Program is “safe.” 10. After Action Review: See item #8 above. 11. County Rural Fire Chief: Larry Carpenter mentioned someone contacted him with the idea of exploring whether there are more ways that the county fire chief could participate. It was mentioned that the county chief should be included in any group meeting of fire chiefs. 12. 2021 Fire Council Meeting Hosts: It was decided to continue our meetings at the Stillwater Building or by remote participation. We will look at the situation again this summer and then possibly ask for meeting hosts. 13. DES Trailer: The county Election Department has donated an 18’ enclosed cargo trailer to DES. KC Williams is looking for ideas on how to use this trailer from fire chiefs. It could hold generators, lights, cots, tents, portable toilets, etc., etc. It could not be used as a command center. All ideas should be sent to Phil Ehlers or KC Williams. The Sheriff’s Office has a new command center vehicle which fire departments can use. They will bring it to a fire council meeting for a tour of its capabilities. 14.Homeland Security Grant: KC Williams secured a grant for two emergency scene cameras and portable lights. These things are solar powered. KC mentioned that there are other grants such as the federal DOD one for surplus used fire trucks and other stuff. Larry Carpenter asked about having drones for large wild land fires. It turns out that the Billings Fire Dept. has 2 drones with 10 Billings firefighters currently getting their FAA pilot certifications. These could be made available to rural fire depts. The drones are infra-red capable. 15. Move Over Law: A bill has been proposed to strengthen Montana’s move over at emergency scene law after two tow truck drivers were killed this last fall. Also, Laurel VFD recently had their rescue truck badly damaged after a reckless driver collided with it. The bill would require drivers to move over and cut their speed to half the posted speed limit. Fines would increase from the current $85 to $275 and reckless endangerment. The old law required drivers to reduce their speed by 20 mph. Firefighters are encouraged to take the FSTS traffic management at emergency scenes course offered by Jerry Prete. 16. Large Controlled Burns: Mike Spini asked that rural fire departments contact fire dispatch when large, controlled burns in rural areas are actually under way. This would help dispatchers when unsuspecting people start frantically calling in large “unknown” fires with lots of smoke. 17. EOC: It was brought up that the current Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is outdated and too small. When people are required to spend the night and under pandemic restrictions, there is room for only 5 or 6 people. There may be a need in the future for a new center. Ideally it should be in a new stand-alone building preferably in close proximity to the current 911 Dispatch Center. It should be a joint city - county venture. 18. Elections: We had our fire council officers election for two-year terms. Phil Ehlers and Larry Carpenter retained their current positions, and Travis Jones became vice president by acclimation. 19. Raffle: Broadview VFD had a 2005 Victory motorcycle given to them in a trade for an old Superior fire truck. They are raffling it off as a fund raiser. Contact Travis Jones. One ticket is $5 and five tickets are $20. 20. Agency Reports: Laurel VFD - See other items. Fuego VFC - Have several new prospects for members. Currently have 8 firefighters. Hope to finally have their open house/fire station dedication late this spring or early next fall. Had 61 calls in 2020 of which 32 were grass fires. Blue Creek VFD - Rick Cortez has been out of town for most of a year. Not much new. Billings FD - Hired Derek Yeager to manage the 911 Dispatch Center. Many challenges with staffing. Had to bring in retired folk to cover shortages. Have been having a two year struggle with a new SCBA air compressor. Finally convinced the manufacturer to replace it with a new one. Can refill air SCBA tanks for rural departments. Getting two new pumpers. The two HME Ahrens Fox all-wheel drive pumpers will be sold. Lockwood RFD - Getting a new 100’ aerial ladder truck to cover the new high school. Taking on 2 new firefighters. Had around 900 calls last year - a new record. Haley Bench VFD - Doing maintenance on trucks. Shepherd VFD - MSA air packs with updated “buddy breathing” capabilities. Getting another heavy brush truck. Worden VFD - Have 2 new water tenders stationed at Huntley and Pompeys Pillar. Sold two old trucks. Turning a demonstrator truck into a rescue truck. Their SCBA updated. They are shorthanded - about 8 to 10 people have quit. Sheriff’s Office - They are also shorthanded - getting new hires in April. BLM - Larry Elder has retired. FSTS - Terry Larson asked fire chiefs to fill out a Traffic Management survey to help justify changes in the Move Over law being presented to the state legislature. There is a need to get more of that training out to fire departments. 21. Next Fire Council meeting will be March 9 at 7:00 pm in the Stillwater Building or by video conferencing . Larry Carpenter, Sec/Treas YCFC .