The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Is Your Department Better?
Borrowing the political "are you better than your were four years ago?" phrase being kicked around, we wanted to see if your department was any better, as far as training and delivery of service, than four years ago.
Has the economy or other factors made training and operations better or worse?
Does your department utilize some type of litmus test or benchmark to determine if training is creating positive results?
Has your department taken advantage of social media and networking to improve and deliver public safety messages?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by capcityff on
-
Nope. Our department is MUCH worse. We enjoyed coming to work four years ago. Now it honestly became just a job.
Main reason is the new chief. He first started to divide the department by race which was working until those of his own race started to realize how bad of a person he is. Now we can at least say that we are all stronger than ever because we all share the same hatred. With that I think morale will be at an all time high once this loser is gone. Hopefully with everything going on downtown the mayor loses his job soon.
The chief has done a number of other things to ruin the department as well such as changing the name, patch and uniforms. He has also rid us of any tradition. The citizens of DC are even taking notice as well at least. One bar across from 9 Engine uptown on U St NW even has a banner hanging from their balcony saying "DCFD Forever" which is an awesome gesture.
I still take pride in working for the DCFD, not FEMS, and know that it will one day get better.
-
Permalink Reply by ashfire on
-
I would have to say capcityff has hit a problem affecting many depts. Leadership is trying to please those above them so they do something that will bring down the dept.
The DC to Baltimore corridor you hear of different things happening and it could be more wide ranged.
I heard Baltimore has shut down or disbanded some companies and transfered companies around the city. State wide training is getting harder to comeby for volunteer depts and career depts having to delay training new people. Some depts or stations may have go out and buy their own station supplies because city or county stores can't supply the items like paper towels, toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Medical supplies and fire gear have become a slow item to get delieved.
-
Permalink Reply by Ron King (Fire Chief) on
-
I feel our department grows stronger each year. Our department takes advantage of all the training in our area. Grants have given us many classes. Our department has come a long ways since 1849. But we still do as long ago. WE STILL PUSH TRAINING. We must do this to keep Public Safety our main priority. And Saving Hearts and Homes in our town.
-
Permalink Reply by Chris Moyer on
-
Yes I do our dept became rescue certified through the PA DOH. We have been training hard gaining some new members and getting out the door faster. 80% are BVR Cert.. We have definetly been busting our butts to improve our image we had some major problems about 4-5 yrs ago like dropping calls ems,fire...etc.
-
Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
-
I'm with CapCity quite a bit here. While I can say, thankfully, we have remained relatively status quo from 4 years ago, much of that is because of efforts put forth by the union and members of the dept.
Unfortunately, us, like many other depts, have faced budget cuts and other financial issues that truly affect how we are able to deliver service to the community while ensuring those of us working are adequately protected etc. The economy is one aspect, with the experience of budget cuts, cap levies, "other priorities" and even elected officials who don't view the fire service as it should be, but all can not be blamed solely on the economy. Economically, we are weathering things relatively well as a community, the problem becomes when monetary priorities are placed elsewhere as opposed to core services.
From a dept operational standpoint alone, overall, we are doing about the same for the core services. We have seen a reduction in technical and speciality duties because there are no incentives to really do them. Core duties and training I would say we are doing well and maintaining and improving training, but haven't been able to further branch out for expanded training as has been done in years past. No real "litmus test" has been done considering the focus is on maintaining core training and honing skills as opposed to new "fad" trainings.
The dept has used social media to an extent, but realistically the union has utilized the social media as well as regular media much more. A dept is limited in what can be said and released, especially when elected officials can make stipulations on what gets released......the union, however, is not pinned down to the same stipulations.Overall, while we are weathering the economy and issues now, we are fighting way more battles today than 4 years ago. Much of this is, like other communities, where we see elected officials using poor economic conditions as a reason to attack budgets and gain more concessions, whether or not they truly need to or more less want to.
And while this comment may piss some people off, I could frankly care less, but the TEA party mentality is something that is truly hurting public safety and departments with the mantra of being taxed enough already. As a taxpayer, I don't like paying more for taxes either, especially when I see reduced services, but for the most part the mindset of many of these folks is blind....they can't see that demanding no taxes and cut spending etc affects things beyond what they may truly wanted. For instance it is one thing to not want to see tax increases to supplement welfare or other social programs, but the reality is that isn't how cuts are made. Even worse are those advocating cuts with a broad axe such as 10% across the board without understanding where funds go and how they are affected. We now see results of such mindsets where public services are affected because of such decisons based on knee jerks as opposed to rational thought.
Furthermore is the aspect of the affect of such mindsets and results on the working public worker. Much like Capcity mentions, the job that was enjoyable to go to and look forward to going to has become a job and paycheck. Sure some may not see this, but there really has been a morale change for those of us who seen before and after the cut, cut, cut and public workers are evil mentality. When you are constantly being attacked and berated it does become difficult to keep a chipper attitude when you feel you have to consistently defend yourself.
I do not blame this aspect on the economy but on those with the damn cut, cut, cut mentality like those of the TEA party represent. Those of us in the public sector see our wages and benefits attacked as though we are the reason for irresponsible policies. We further see crap like "I pay more for my HC and retirement" without regards to differences in jobs.......again as though public sector workers and unions are to blame for the financial woes.
The simple fact remains that public workers are enduring the same financial realities as everyone else. The other reality is most unions and public workers have made further concessions, yet keep getting attacked. Instead of these "cut, cut, cut" clowns pointing fingers at what such workers have for their toils, they should be questioning how they can get the same thing. Quite frankly, if I keep getting attacked by such politicians and TEA party folks, the job becomes less of a career and more of a job. I will still do it to the best of my abilities, but the passion starts to get lost.
-
Permalink Reply by Bob Callahan on
-
Thed combination department I work full-time for is about the same. During the previous 4 years we have hired 4 career personnel - myself to deliver and manage public education and assist in managing training, and one additional person per shift (bringing each shift from one to two persons). We still have about the same number of volunteers through volunteer resoponse to EMS calls have decreased since the addition of the second person per shift.
We have replaced an engine, two light rescues/service trucks and a brush truck, and refurbished a tanker. We have significantly expanded our training facility with a new, larger burn building and 3 new propane-fired props.
Budget has increased slightly though this year we expect a 50,000 or so decrease.
My VFD is significantly better.
We have undergone a change in leadership which has increased training requirements and improved training, developed and implemented management systems and reorganized the admin operations.
Unfortuantly staffing is still low.
We just recieved a new milage which will give us about $50,000 more this upcoming fiscal year.
-
Permalink Reply by Moose on
-
This is the fourth department I have been a member of due to moving a few times to find work and a safer place to live, and I just transfered to this department about 3 years ago but I can see a noticeable difference in our department for the better.
We have received a few grants in the past 3 years for newer, more improved brush fire equipment, as well as a new 4 wheeler which will soon have a skid unit in the back of it containing 75 gallons of water, pump with drafting ability, a rescue body that carries the stokes on top, and hand tools and hose below.
We applied for and received a grant which assisted us in purchasing our first TIC and 4-gas meter which was just recently placed in service and has already seen a few fires.
We have been purchasing 3 new sets of turnouts per-year in order to replace older gear and keep us on a replacement schedule to keep ahead of the 10 year rule.
We have sent a total of 4 new members through their Firefighter I class, and received 3 new members from other departments already certified as interior firefighters bringing us up from 7 interior firefighters to 14, and our training standards are changing to meet the new training requirements for department drills. We are even scheduling an annual drill with each of our surrounding mutual aid departments to better acquaint ourselves with each others equipment and members so we work well at larger fires.
We are currently bidding for a newer, updated station to accomodate our trucks and our training needs, including office space for our chief, and squad captain, and records storage. We are looking at maybe starting construction next year if all goes well with our commisioners and the community, which is good considering we store 5 trucks is a 3 bay station currently and now have the 4-wheeler on a trailer to find room for...
All-in-all I would say we have improved in the past three years I have been a member of this department, and look forward to future change as well as we continue to grow.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
