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Chief's Monthly Report

Chief's Monthly Report

West Valley Fire Department

Yakima County Fire District 12

For the Meeting April 8th, 2025

 

Agenda Topic:           Department Monthly Progress Report

Prepared By:             Chief Nathan Craig

Date Prepared:          April 3rd, 2025

 

The purpose of this report is to update the Board of Fire Commissioners, Officers Management Team, and fire personnel on recent department activities and progress on strategic objectives.

 

 

Operations 

In March there were a total of 92 alarms in the District, 25 were ambulance only calls.

Incidents:                                                    YTD               Incidents by Zone            YTD Zone                 

Station 51                    8                     20                                19                    40 (23%)

Station 52                    15                   39                                23                    67 (39%)

Station 53                    13                   26                                19                    53 (31%)

Station 54                    4                     10                                6                      13 (7%)

Station 50                    27 (4 Duty)    78                                                        173

Yakima                       0                     1                                 

Ambulance Only         25 (0 Lift)      68                               

Total                                                   242

 

Incident Type:                       Month            Type                                                               YTD

            Fire                             5                      1 bldg, 2 veg, 1 chimney, 1 RV                      13

            EMS                            60                    50 EMS, 6 MVC, 3 AMA, 1 assist                161

            Hazardous Condition  3                      1 gas leak, 2 CO                                              5

            Service Call                6                      5 lift, 1 Lock Out                                            21

            Good Intent                 0                                                                                              11

            False Alarm                9                      7 AFA, 2 AMA                                               22

           

 

Action Taken:                       Month            Type                                                               YTD

            Canceled enroute        8          5 AFA, 1 MVC, 2 AMA                                             25

            Extinguishment          5          1 building, 2 vegetation, 1 Chimney, 1 RV                  12

            Provide BLS               49                                                                                            134

            Assist Invalid              5                                                                                              18

            Investigate                  23        2 AFA, 1 gas, 1 MVC, 3 AMA, 6 EMS, 2 CO, 2 burning, 4 smoke    49

            Other                           0                                                                                              2

 

Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond)   Automatic Aid Given                                              

From Highland           0                                  To Highland                0

From Yakima              3                                  To Yakima                  0

From Gleed                 0                                  To BIA                        0

YTD                7                                              YTD                3         

 

Mutual Aid Received            0                                  Mutual Aid Given     0

            YTD                            0                                              YTD                0         

 

A barn fire caused $50k in damages last month.

 

Response Times: (Target= within 1 mile of station 8 minutes or less, add 2 minutes every mile after) Qualifying Alarms: 46mo, 82yr, Target met: mo. 34 (69%) yr. 57 (70%), Target not met: mo. 15 (31%) yr. 25 (30%).

NFPA 1720 Responses for rural areas (6 FF’s on scene within 14 minutes, 80% of the time).             Incidents: 1mo, 6yr, target met: mo. 1 (100%), yr 4 (67%), target not met: mo. 0 (0%) yr. 2 (33%).

Personnel

  • Current Staffing: Total personnel stand at 89, with 79 on-call members (57 operations, 13 support, and 6 on leave).  One resignation of Station 52 FF.

Recruitment/Retention Prepared by DC Johnston

The recruits have completed all their classroom sessions for Wildland Training.  We will culminate with a joint field day on May 10th with Districts 2, 4, 5, 6, and 12 at District 5’s Station #7 in Sawyer.

We will be advertising in the months of April and May for Recruitment for the upcoming Fall Recruit class.  Officer Boisselle will be ordering some new roadway recruitment signs, I will focus on Station 53 and 54 areas, as that is where our primary needs of responders are.  Additionally, we will advertise at the High School for Cadets, historically we have brought Cadets on in the Fall, recently there has been a concept of bringing them on in Winter as well. 

Department Training and Safety Prepared by DC Johnston

March Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill, OTEP Workshop A (Mass Casualty Incident Triaging & Orthopedics), Multi Company Operations, and Brush Truck Review / Fire Shelter Video & Throw.

Developed the April Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill / SCBA Quarterly, OTEP Module 2 (Cardiac, Toxicology, & HazMat), Wildland Refresher, Wildland Pumps & Porta Tanks, and Water Supply & Hose Deploy.

On March 15th and 16th we hosted a 2-day National Fire Academy class – Preparing for Initial Company Operations (PICO), the class had 30 students.

On March 15th I conducted a Driver / Operator class for seven of the Fall recruits, all were given a Driver / Operator Task Book to start working on.

On March 25th I proctored eight firefighters with IFSAC Testing, six from West Valley and two from Selah.

On March 26 & 27 Lt Pfaff and FF Fate attended a 2-day Truck Training class at Yakima Fire.  The first day was 8 hours of classroom training and discussion followed by day two that included a full day of drilling on various Aerial apparatus skills. 

On March 29th we hosted a full day Energy Systems class taught by Retired Seattle Fire Captain Chris Green.  The course covered Photovoltaic systems, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), and Lithium-Ion batteries. I attended the class along with a couple other members of the department, the class was very informative.

Budget/Finance Prepared by Officer Boisselle

Due to vacation time planned and our bill paying schedule we may have a second run of bills April 30th, there are some utility bills that didn’t make the cutoff for this meeting.

Fire Prevention/Public Education Prepared by Officer Boisselle

We will be conducting EDITH House presentations on April 22nd and 23rd at Ahtanum, Cottonwood, and Mountainview Elementaries.

Interlocal Coordination

  • 911 Nurse Navigator:The nurse navigator program is scheduled to begin April 22nd.
  • Pacific Power:Pacific Power held a virtual meeting for responders in regards to their wildfire prevention plans this season, additionally their area representative attended last month’s county chiefs meeting.  April 30th for our pre-season wildland cooperators meeting PP&L will have another presentation.

Logistics Updates

  • Apparatus Updates:
    • Brush 51: Under construction, chassis painted.
    • Engine 54: Continue to work with manufacturers to develop an apparatus that best suits our needs.

·        Carports:

o   On order with engineered plans to satisfy permit requirements, DC Johnston is developing the site plan to submit for permits.

·        Purchasing Schedule:

o   Computers and PPE are on order, all other items have been purchased with exception of updating our Mission posters.

Strategic Plan –

  • Action Plan: Report in packet, wrapped up first quarter items and have started on 2nd quarter.
  • Operational Assessment: We have reviewed draft technical data #1, draft #2 is upcoming and will include finance & service delivery, draft #3 will be findings and recommendations.  The review is to ensure accuracy with statements made to ensure nothing was misunderstood by the consultants. 

Grants

Legends Casino: Submitted a request to purchase the carport at Station 52.

NVFC/Anheuser Busch- Submitted a request for a pallet of drinking water.

NVFC/State Farm- Submitted a request for laptop computers.

Legislation

·       Budget Request:

o   Both the House and Senate Capital Budgets include funding for emergency generators at Stations 52 and 53. The Governor has recently stated he will not sign the budgets as they were passed because they propose too much in taxes.

·       Bill Tracker:

o   In the packet.

Community Engagement and Events

  • Association Events:
    • Community Easter Egg Hunt, April 19th.

·        Wildfire Ready Events:

o   Chip it Don’t Burn it yard waste event planned at Station 51 April 26th 0900-1300.

Good of the Order

·        Awards banquet:

o   Firefighter of the Year: Eddie Smith, EMS Provider of the Year: Josie Gohl, Bulldog: Shauna & Jason Tupy, Retirement: Frank Woodin.  10 members received service pins and 12 new EMT’s recognized.

 

 

Respectfully,

 

Nathan Craig

Fire Chief