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SALARIED FULL TIME FIRE CHIEF RECOMMENDED FOR CITY OF VICTORIA Victoria Fire Chief Andrew Heger presented information to Victoria City Councilmembers at a 5 p.m. workshop on Monday evening, February 10th. The Chief spoke about past and current membership and staffing in the Victoria Fire Department. Victoria is growing in population and yet the Fire Department is decreasing in membership. In 2010 the Victoria Fire Department numbered 35. In 2013 the highest number of members at any one time was 27. Said Chief Heger, "I am not here to complain. I love what I do and I'm very passionate about it. There are a variety of problems and I'm here to talk about a small portion of it." Andrew began working as Chief in January 2012.
Mutual Aid Calls Andrew referred to specific challenges. "Our response time is going up since 2009. That concerns me," said the Chief. "Mutual aid is part of the reason for that. We had 35 mutual aid calls in 2013, to provide help to neighboring cities. We're going to see that number grow." In 2012 there were 17 mutual aid calls. In response to a Council question about mutual aid, Andrew replied, "Technically, it can be anyone, but we mostly work with Chanhassen, Chaska, Waconia, St. Boni, and Excelsior." He added, "Out of the 35 calls, 33 were for active house fires. It takes 40 to 50 people for a house fire." Andrew said the Victoria firefighters have also responded to mutual aid calls to places farther away, like Delano and Loretto. "Firefighters don't work anymore on a call until they collapse," he said, "but they're cycled out. At the Chaska fire on Tuesday, as we were leaving, Waconia was coming in." "A large incident pulls in a ton of resources," said Andrew. "There was a fire at Green Isle and they needed water hauled in from Victoria and Excelsior. Their water supply couldn't contain it."
Medical Calls Andrew reported there were a total of 246 calls for Victoria firefighter service in 2013, nearly 40 more than in 2012, and that 44% of them were medical calls for service. "We have two levels of medical calls," he explained. "We have the First Responder level and the EMT level. Ridgeview Medical Center dictates what we can and cannot do on a medical call. Their ambulance arrives four to six minutes behind us. The bulk of the medicals are not broken bones but heart attacks." Councilmember Joe Pavelko confirmed, "So a lot of your calls are medical and not related to fire." Asked Mayor Tom O'Connor, "Would it make sense for you to have a dedicated team of EMT's? It might be easier to get bodies [members] if the focus was on EMT's." Replied City Manager Don Uram, "Their challenge is the firefighting piece, not the medical piece."
Logistics Few Victoria firefighters can respond to daytime calls. "People aren't here," said the Chief. "They leave the city to go to work. That's kind of what we're up against. Rick Leuthner is a big part of our daytime responses. Gary Sohns, too. Rick has more than 35 years in the Department and has no plans to retire. Gary is going to pull the pin and retire this year at 30 years. Troy Walsh is also part of daytime calls. Jeff Borg is a Waconia Fire Department member who works in Victoria and helps us out." He referred to the high number of Victoria firefighters who have either left or retired in the last four years. Andrew said that in 2013 the average number of Victoria firefighters responding to a call was 12 per incident. He clarified that the term "average" can be deceiving and not tell the whole story. "Sometimes a truck leaves with only two people in it, and sometimes 18 people show up," he said. "So that's how we get an average of firefighters per incident." "The busiest time of the day for us is from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. and that's the hardest time for us to staff because people are on the road coming home from work and can't respond to a call," he said. "It can get kind of tricky for us." He said Victoria firefighters travel an average of 21 miles one way to work.
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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March 2014 |
