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Response Times in Rural Areas
Im not sure where all of you are from but I'm from a rural area and I've places lost and lives lost in surrounding areas due to long response times from departments. Not saying its their fault but the factor more is due to low membership counts in a lot of areas more so during the day. Also i think another reasoning for delayed response time is the amount of area one department must cover. This is just a quick post but I think it can be understood all across the country and I'm just wondering what fellow firefighters think about this and if there is any way we could change this. Just seeing where this topic goes and what kind of ideas are out there!
Thanks to all and have a safe day!!
Thanks to all and have a safe day!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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I live in a rural area as well - about 60 persons per square mile. Our response area covers about 40 square miles, not huge by some standards but it takes us a while to get to most places.
For example: our typical time from activation until the first pump is on the road, is about 6 to 8 minutes. Travel time for the piece can be 10 to 15 minutes for the district edges. With automatic mutual aid the response time can be cut by a minute or two in the westernmost part of town, but that's about it.
The folks who live in the country here tend to be independent, hardy and responsible; fire prevention is the first line of defense against property loss and most people seem to understand that.
Automatic mutual aid with neighboring departments can help. Re-defining district borders may also be necessary, so that dividing lines are equidistant from fire stations.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on
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Those are also the same people that do not call the squad unless they truly need it. They understand what an emergency really is.
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Permalink Reply by Bruce Clouthier Jr. on
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I completely agree with you! There are so many times we put are lives on the line as well as others to respond to calls that are not priorty. I heard on the scanner today an elderly lady called 911 because she needed rock salt! Haha also stupid calls like that is what gets limited amount of manpower that really turns into something. Or the call that they think is not anything and then turns out to be, guess who's there running their mouths?
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Permalink Reply by Loyd Dittfurth on
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well I cant answer for alot of places. In the Texas panhandle we are very srpead out infact the ems service back home includes 5 EMT- Basics and they are incharge of about 40 spuare miles and not all the time are there enough to run the ambulance out of the barn let alone run fire aswell at times the responce time has been as much as 1 hour because of having to call an ambulance from 30 miles away
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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Our district coverage area is mostly rural , and we cover 75 sq. miles with a population of 8.000. We have two stations. We also have automatic mutual aid with our out most district lines. This provides for a quicker response.
If your department can work out an automatic mutual aid agreement with your neighbors, it should help with the response time, and on scene time, not to mention personal as well.
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Permalink Reply by Randy Porter on
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I agree with Mancini, Huffman covers i believe 30 Sq. miles. We have automatic mutual aid with surrounding departments, it has benefited the citizens more than a couple of times. We are now adding a working second station on the north end , and soon will be planning on a south side station. Although adding stations and apparatus takes money, some departments dont have. The added call volume to neighboring departments, and increased friendships made by working together more, could led to donated apparatus. We donated an engine to one of our really really rural partners, so that they could aid us when needed.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty on
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I agree with Rusty Mancini. Especially since I am one of his neighboring departments. There have been times where, due to members work schedules or other family commitments, if it weren't for his department and others we would have only had 1 or 2 people respond to the call. With the automatic mutual aid agreement we entered into with them, we can generally count on at least 4 personnel ( equal to an Engine Company staffing) form them and some other departments. My department is lucky in the fact that one of our members has a boss who will let him leave work for almost every call. We also have several members who work 24 hr shift, so they are generally around most days. There are always ways to get around a problem, you just have to find what works best for you.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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If you want urban response times, live in an urban area.
If you want rural response times, live in the country.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Cole on
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First off, the public, the people 'protected' by these individual departments should be aware of the inadequate response times, and poor staffing. And the responsibility to make any requested changes lies on the local government. Response times to dwelling fires in excess of 10 minutes or more, with even less than 4 staffing an apparatus only leaves to putting some water on burned-out shells, leveled to the ground.
If that is the best the department can provide, so be it. But the fact is that too many people think that the presence of a few new engines sitting inside the bays of some rather nice looking stations, with a few pick-up trucks in the lot every so often, equates to fire protection.
Yet so often maybe only one of those new $350,000 pumper/tankers rolls out at a respectable time frame with enough staffing to throw a line in service. Again, that may be the best you can do, and so be it. People have to work, often far outside their response areas, and often more than one job. But the community should be aware of the situation. And if they decide they want better protection, it is up to the governing authorites to find the funding.
The reality is that with these given situations, most, if not all fires will result in total loss to the dwellings of origin, and often exposure loss as well.
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O we do and works not too bad sometimes because they are just as poor staffing as us but we have a automatic mutual aid agreement with a neighboring department and they got called for a house fire we actually bet them there because they had heavy ice up north and we saved half the house between 3 departments so mutual aid does work and having a good realtionship with them helps too. Another thing is TRAIN with them!!
Thanks and be safe!
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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We just had our annual meeting and our "Average" response time (from alarm to on scene) was 7 minutes and 54 seconds.....Not bad for a small rural department....Now that was the average time....some were longer but then again obviously some were shorter......and yes, we are Volunteer......Stay safe...keep the faith........Paul
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Permalink Reply by Shawn on
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We cover about about 100 sq mi. with vol fire and an ambulance company that relies on vol 12 hrs a day. Our village and 2 towns which we cover, started this ambulance service from scratch. New ambulance and everything. Paid ALS (mostly paramedics) stay at the station and a vol driver responds to the station for calls. Rught now only the ALS get paid. During hours the paid staff is on, we have good response times, just wait for a driver.
The 1st yr it was run by all vol.s they soft bill, so when there was enough $ generated, they hired on the ALS. 1st it was Mon - Fri 6am-6pm. Now there is enough $$ to were they have added Sat and Sun in there also. The reason this happened is we lost the ambulance service who originaly covered our district (we were 1st response prior to this change) and we were losing vols and couldn't handle the calls.
Fire side, we have a 4 min response time for the 1st engine (usually includes our rescue also). Day time while everybody is working this goes to about 5 min. Lucky to have 11 members in the village and 3/4 of the other members are within 5 miles (out of 50 members). Good Topic
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