BELLEVUE FIRE DEPARTMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2016 BELLEVUE FIRE DEPARTMENT MISSION, VISION, VALUES, CORE VALUES Our Mission Assist the public in the protection of life and property by minimizing the impact of fire, medical emergencies, and potential disasters or uncontrolled events. Our Vision A protected, prepared and healthy community Our Values Bellevue Fire embraces the City of Bellevue’s Core Values and is committed to upholding and embodying them in our policies, culture and daily actions. City of Bellevue Core Values Exceptional Public Service, Stewardship, Commitment to Employees, Integrity, Innovation PAGE 2 ANNUAL REPORT 2016 MESSAGE FROM THE FIRE CHIEF On behalf of the Bellevue Fire Department, I am very happy to present our Annual Report for 2016. I have often thought that the true test of any organization and the people within it is how they manage change. The last year has certainly provided that test for our organization on many fronts. Once again, we were faced with numerous retirements, promotions, new faces and the transfer of personnel between assignments. At that same time, we were also challenged with a significant increase in structure fires and an overall increase in our general workload in all areas; prevention inspections, Fire Chief Mark Risen administrative tasks, budgeting and levy development. All of these changes are the result of working in a city that is undergoing massive change before our very eyes. With a booming downtown, light rail implementation and the Spring District revitalization underway (to name just a few projects) there is substantial growth outside our windows at City Hall. The good news is that, once again, the extremely talented men and women of this organization met every challenge in the best possible manner. It was extremely gratifying to watch our staff tackle new challenges or promote into new positions and perform magnificently at all levels of the organization. It was also very rewarding to have our citizens show their support with the much needed Fire Facilities Levy. This levy will produce over $6 million dollars annually for construction and renovation of fire facilities for the next 20 years. This stable funding source, along with an increase in our general Capital Investment Program, will allow us to start land acquisition, design and construction of Fire Station 10 in the next few years. No amount of success is achieved in a vacuum and that is especially true for the Bellevue Fire Department. Without support from our City Council, the City Manager’s Office and other departments within the city, the achievement of our mission would simply be impossible. Our success and accomplishments are shared with them, and the supportive public that we serve. In closing, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for a successful 2016 to all members of the Bellevue Fire Department for their leadership and commitment at every level of the organization. Respectfully, Mark Risen, Fire Chief PAGE 3 BELLEVUE FIRE DEPARTMENT 2016 Department Statistics • Personnel – 235 (FTE/LTE’s) 199 (suppression/medical personnel) • Total incidents – 18,365 (81.4% medical, 18.6% suppression/fires) • Cardiac arrest save rate – 58% • Fires confirmed to room of origin – 80.16% • Emergency response time – 5:42 min/sec average (time from 911 call to first arriving fire apparatus on scene) • Patient transports – 8,330 (total with private ambulances) 5,928 (Bellevue Basic & Advanced Life Support Apparatus) • Maintenance inspections – 5,629 2016 Highlights • Successful passage of the Fire Facility Levy and associated public outreach • Selection of preferred site for Fire Station 10 and associated public outreach • 22.3% increase in structure fires and continuous outstanding service • Participated in King County opioid study and Bellevue Fire was the first agency to implement the use of Narcan • The Office of Emergency Management conducted three exercises spanning federal, state, county and local government. Cascadia Earthquake, Complex Coordinated Attack and Winter Weather functional drills • Recruitment of a new Emergency Manager • Assignment of Administrative Captain to Sound Transit link light rail • Successful hiring of lateral firefighters • Completion of training burn prop and deployment of new hose, nozzles, thermal imaging cameras and smart phones • Retention of Class 2 rating by (WSRB) Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau • Accredited by the CFAI (Commission of Fire Accreditation International) and most recently, 2013 -2018 • The Bellevue Fire Department is the only nationally accredited and Class 2 fire department in the State of Washington PAGE 4 ANNUAL REPORT 2016 INCIDENT COMPARISONS 3000 Annual Calls for Service by Units *All Calls, Bellevue & Contract City Only 2500 2000 1500 Number of Incidents 1000 500 0 Light Light Aid 1 Engine 1 Aid 2 Engine 2 Aid 3 Engine 4 Engine 5 Engine 6 Engine 8 Engine 9 Force 3 Force 7 2014 2433 1428 2079 1106 2305 1450 1542 1432 2123 1728 548 1203 2015 2853 1473 2232 1095 2452 1495 1458 1278 2103 1764 589 1226 2016 2657 1541 2330 1156 2391 1489 1585 1397 2091 1774 635 1297 4000 Incident Count by Station Geographic Area *All Calls, Bellevue & Contract City Only 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 Number of Incidents 1000 500 0 ST= Station ST1 ST2 ST3 ST4 ST5 ST6 ST7 ST8 ST9 2014 3342 1998 2967 1041 1003 1594 637 455 1317 2015 3512 2029 2976 992 1021 1767 693 488 1285 2016 3363 2232 3001 1037 1101 1819 635 508 1442 PAGE 5 BELLEVUE FIRE DEPARTMENT ANNUAL HIGHRISE AND CBD INCIDENTS Annual Highrise Incidents (2011-2016) 800 700 734 679 600 653 500 400 NUMBER OF INCIDENTS NUMBER 300 200 241 100 145 159 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Between 2011 and 2016 incident volume in highrises increased by 520 emergency responses or 427% Annual Central Business District Incidents (2011-2016) 2,361 2,374 2,432 2,550 2,784 2,731 TOTAL 3,000 73 63 FIRE 2,500 60 58 535 582 33 36 SUPPRESSION 553 480 462 432 2,000 1,500 2,175 2086 EMS 1,937 1,000 1,894 NUMBER OF INCIDENTS NUMBER 1,866 1,906 500 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Between 2011 and 2016 incident volume in the CBD (Central Business District) has increased by 370 emergency responses or 14% PAGE 6 ANNUAL REPORT 2016 BUREAU OF OPERATIONS The Bureau of Operations supports the 199 suppression/EMS line personnel that in 2016 responded to 18,365 incidents, confined fires to room of origin over 80% of the time, transported over 8,000 patients and achieved a cardiac arrest save rate of nearly 60%. The cities we protect continue to grow and develop, in particular the downtown Bellevue core. Our continuing charge moving forward will be to maintain and wherever possible improve service to an ever denser, taller, more populated service area, to effectively adapt to Deputy Chief, Bureau of such challenges as the East Link light rail project and to do Operations Mark Moulton so safely, nimbly and cost effectively. It’s a charge we’re eager to address. These dedicated men and women are tasked with maintaining optimum operational readiness in a wide variety of public safety disciplines to include: • Fire suppression • Emergency medical services (basic and advanced life support) • Technical rescue (structural collapse, confined space, trench, vehicle extrication, surface water, high angle, etc.) • Hazardous materials incident response • Fire prevention (company level inspections) • Fire education (station tours, school programs, etc.) • Station, apparatus and equipment maintenance • Miscellaneous support activities (commercial occupancy pre-fire planning, map updates, hydrant location and condition verification, etc.) PAGE 7 BELLEVUE FIRE DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DIVISION 2016 was another successful year for the EMS Division. In the following paragraphs I will discuss some of the changes that occurred in our part of the organization and some of the change we effected. Call Volume and Transport Revenue The Department responded to a total of 18,365 alarms in 2016, 14,950 of which were EMS related calls, representing 81.4% of the total volume. 36.9% of these EMS incidents were ALS level responses and 18.5% were BSA (where we provide both ALS Battalion Commander, EMS and BLS) responses. The following is the breakdown: Division Andy Adolfson (not pictured) Captain Victor Bourque, Lieutenant Dan Trippel Bellevue & Contract Cities ALS Incidents 2,818 BLS Incidents 9,036 Total (BSA) 11,854 King County BLS Incidents 400 ALS Incidents 2,696 Total (King County) 3,096 Total EMS Incidents 14,950 Bellevue Fire transport units performed 5,928 transports to area hospitals in the past year, of which 61.7% were BLS transports. BLS transports created $1,187,342.63 in revenue with an estimate of another $130,000.00 that will likely be added to the 2016 total (completion of billing often occurs several months after the billing occurs due to processing time by the insurance companies). This could bring our total to around $1,300,000.00. Our CARES team made 399 visits to those needing additional assistance and had a very positive outcome rate. We are still consolidating these numbers but the initial reports are good. New personnel In 2016 EMS Training Lieutenant, Mark Weldon (May), and the Administrative Captain, Blaine Singleton (June), finished their esteemed careers by retiring. They were both big contributors to our EMS program as well as extremely hard workers. To fill these voids we have brought in Lieutenant. Dan Trippel and Captain Vic Bourque. Both are PAGE 8 ANNUAL REPORT 2016 EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DIVISION seasoned members of the organization and well in tune with what works, and what does not work, in the field. Dan and Vic have done a fantastic job getting up to speed and have really made the transition nearly effortless. New paramedics and new paramedic students Three Bellevue Firefighters completed the University of Washington Paramedic Training Program at the end of July.