Fire Department Consolidation

Three fire agencies train together, save together

Three local fire agencies are pooling their resources to save more than $300,000 in personnel costs.

Clark County Fire & Rescue, Clark County Fire District 6 and Vancouver Fire Department have consolidated their three training divisions into one.

The fire commission boards and the Vancouver City Council recently approved an interlocal agreement among the agencies to share training services. Mike Ciraulo, the training division chief for Clark County Fire & Rescue, is now in charge of all three departments’ training operations.

The departments will save more than $300,000 by eliminating duplicated staff positions.

Much of the money saved will be reinvested in training and equipment. The departments will also save money by purchasing training materials at a discounted group rate.

Prior to the consolidation, the departments had a total of three training-division chiefs, 12 training captains and several administrative assistants. Now the departments have one training chief, eight captains and one person handling administrative work, Ciraulo said.

Nobody was laid off as a result of the consolidation, Ciraulo said. Vancouver and Fire District 6 had vacancies at their chief positions and other personnel were reassigned, he said.

“We were able to help get personnel back on the fire engines,” said Ciraulo, adding that trainers work office shifts.

All training-division personnel remain employees of their respective agencies but serve all three agencies. For example, Ciraulo is still employed and paid by Clark County Fire & Rescue, but he serves the three agencies equally, he said.

The three departments’ total staff is about 415, including paid and volunteer responders, Ciraulo said.

In addition to the financial savings, Ciraulo said the three departments will receive a higher level of training. Prior to the consolidation, some departments had more specialized training in certain areas. Now all firefighters and paramedics will receive the same training.

For example, Clark County Fire & Rescue — which serves the rural areas of La Center, Ridgefield and Battle Ground — had more specialists trained in wildland fires. Those trainers are sharing their knowledge with the other agencies, Ciraulo said.

“It raised the tide,” Ciraulo said. “Everyone is getting a higher level of training.”

Over the past three weeks, firefighters from the three agencies have gone through one of their first exercises under the new structure.

Fighting fire or fighting changes? Rethinking fire department ...

Our communities are deeply rooted in public safety traditions. But particularly in light of the economic difficulties Santa Clara County (SCC) and its constituent cities face—both now and in the foreseeable future—taxpayers can no longer afford to fund the status quo. Therefore, and in light of complaints that it is common to see fire departments over-deploy multiple firefighting apparatus in response to non-life-threatening medical emergencies, seemingly a waste of taxpayer dollars, the Grand Jury focused its inquiry on exploring change in fire departments.

Town and city managers (collectively CMs) and fire chiefs were interviewed to understand how changes to response protocol or various forms of consolidation had been considered to improve effectiveness and reduce cost. The Grand Jury found that, if considered at all, changes had not been implemented. However, CMs and fire chiefs generally agreed that fire department operations as currently configured are unsustainable. All agreed, in principle, that fire departments should rethink their response protocols—which are based on an historically fire-oriented model that does not match today’s overwhelmingly medical-based demand for emergency services. CMs and fire chiefs also agreed that opportunities for consolidation warrant a closer look, particularly since fire departments throughout the county deliver the same services in much the same ways. In doing so, it is extremely important to separate the iconography of shiny red trucks and Dalmatians from the reality of today’s firefighting.

It is not the Grand Jury’s intent to advise how fire departments should fight fire or deliver other emergency services; rather this report discusses how shifting resources, changing skill mix and adopting other reforms can improve service, reduce costs and enable stations to remain open in spite of strained budgets.

Background

By far, public safety is the most costly service cities provide. Broadly speaking, public safety includes Police and Fire Departments; additional functions under this umbrella include record keeping and retrieval and dispatch communications, among other services. Public safety costs account for anywhere from 50% to 70% of city budgets, and fire departments, on average, consume ~20% of city budgets (see Table 1).

View the full PDF here.

Fire department consolidation, why & how to do it-- right

Advantages of fire and building department consolidation

The New York City Consolidation Act, as in force in 1891, with notes indicating the statutory sources, references to judicial decisions, and all laws relating to New York city, passed since January 1, 1882, together with an appendix of the royal English colonial charters of New York city

City and county consolidation for Los Angeles

Badges of the bravest, a pictorial history of fire departments in New York City