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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05 2020 Chief's Report for November meeting (2)CHIEF’S REPORT November 6, 2020 I. Budget • FY 2020/2021 • Our team has been working the State EMS Director Dr. Bronstein and his administrative staff on the FY 20-21 budget. As of this week we are possibly looking at a 2.5% reduction from the general funds portion of our budget. (This shortfall is $956,155.10) • FY 2021/2022 • County Funded Budget ▪ Budget kickoff held by Finance ▪ Directives are; • No new positions • 5% budgetary reduction shall be submitted • State Funded Budget items ▪ Legislative approval for DLNR Funding needs to be realized for funding of Water Safety Officers at Hapuna and Kua Bay ▪ State EMS anticipating Budgetary cuts as well. II. Alternative Funding and Grants • Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation Funding assistance o Working with SalesForce on providing County with Covid-19 related protective equipment. • USFA FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant for Covid-19 o Received award of $380,000 for Covid-19 PPE and disinfecting equipment o Received notice that FEMA did not award enough funding and that we are eligible to submit an additional grant application for more funding. • USFA FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant for Operations o Grant Committee submitted projects for FF Safety for items dealing with the proper cleaning of Gear and clothing to minimize cancer risk. o AFG awards and disbursement postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19. III. Human Resources Division 1) Recruitments a) Internal Recruitment within Department • Fire/HazMat Specialist – closed 10/27/20. Referred list from DHR is pending, upon receipt we will start the MQ review. Written exams are scheduled for December 17, 2020. b) Open-Competitive Recruitment • Account Clerk – interviews have been scheduled for 11/05, 11/06, 11/10 & 11/2. Targeted hire date is 12/01/20 • Fire Fighter Recruit– Referred list received from DHR. PAE is next phase of recruitment. Logistics & coordination are pending. 2) Employee Development and Training a) Training schedule for County sponsored courses have re-opened: • Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) New Team Member training was conducted on 10/18-10/21/20 with additional sessions scheduled for 11/16-11/18/20. • HazMat Technician training is scheduled for 11/9-11/20/20. 3) Labor Relations a) None to report. IV. Emergency Operations Division AC-1 1) Apparatus Updates: • KME Apparatus E-7 and E-17 are currently in transit to Hawai‘i. • Pierce Apparatus (E-20) on the West Coast awaiting shipping to Hawai‘i. • Rosenbauer build (BT-17), chassis has arrived at the plant and the build process has begun. Expected completion of Jan 2021. 2) AC Okinaka attended a quarterly HISSPA meeting at the Westin Hāpuna Beach Resort. Resorts are preparing for re-opening in the month of November. 3) AC Okinaka has also participated in an American Red Cross Advisory Council Meeting on Oct 16. It has been a while since the organization had an HFD representative on their committee. 4) AC Okinaka has informed us that the additional FLIR Thermal Imaging cameras through a promotional deal with the manufacturer has been approved. We are currently awaiting the units. 5) AC Okinaka has been in discussions with ARFF Chief Glen Mitchell and Acting Division Chief Denis Nagao on the proposal to expand HFD’s usage of the Hilo ARFF Training Pit. We have received tentative approval to proceed. Continued planning and preparation in the works. BATTALION 1, East Hawai‘i Incidents: 1) 9/29 #18558, Structure Fire, Pu Ali’i, Dist 19. ~1600 sq foot home destroyed by fire. Fully engulfed upon arrival of HFD units. Overhaul assisted by DPW excavator. Squatters reported to be living in home and all evacuated. No injuries. 2) 10/2 #18773, Code 500 save, Oihana St, Dist 3. Retired HFD Captain in Code 500 status, revived (with later 100% recovery) by Co3 personnel, aided by dispatch coaching wife on scene. 3) 10/4 #18884, Exhausted Hiker, Pu’u O’o Trail, Dist 4. Exhausted hiker assisted from about 2 miles in on Pu’u O’o trail. Co50 co-responded for mutual aid. 4) 10//8 #19156, Boat Adrift/Divers in the water, Puhi Bay, Dist 2. A ~20’ boat broke anchor and was adrift towards the breakwater. 3 divers in the water were unable to catch the boat. SKI-1 heard the call and notified BC1 that he was available to launch at Puhi Bay. SKI-1 caught the boat with only another 100’ to go to the break wall, and a rescue man from C-1 drove it back to the divers. No injuries. 5) 10/9 #19275, Structure Fire, 39th Ave, Dist 18. Interior structure fire stopped by HFD units, limiting damage to two upstairs rooms and attic. 6) 10/12 #19497, Stranded Fisherman, Kaloli Point shoreline, Dist 18. HFD units responded to possible divers in distress, upon arrival Co18 personnel were able to locate a fisherman with no light, disorientated and stuck at the cliffs along Kaloli point. No moon, with 100% cloud coverage. Victim walked out by Co18 and Co2 personnel, no injuries. 7) 10/15 #19615, Lost Hiker, Old Kalapana Trail, Dist 10. 60’s male reported missing at night, search unable to locate him at night. At first light hiker was able to find his way out of area to safety. No injuries. 8) 10/15 #19674, Lost Hikers, 3 miles inland of Apua Point (HVNP), Dist 19. 2 hikers, dehydrated and unable to proceed further. HVNP rangers requested C- 1 mutual aid to extricate victims from area to LZ set up by Co19. Parties refused EMS. No injuries. 9) 10/20 #20027, Structure Fire, Kulana St, Dist 1. Structure fire stopped and contained by HFD units to one back unit on a home divided into a duplex. No injuries. 10) 10/22 #20153, Natural Vegetation Fire, Glenwood gun range, Dist 5. HFD units worked to stop the spread of a challenging green waste fire. multiple large piles of trees/branches (estimated at 750-1500 cubic yards of material on fire). HPD issued a citation for the burn ban, to the owner of the property. 11) 10/22 #20165, Brush Fire, Road 2, Dist 5. Brush fire from property owner burning vegetation/green waste. Fire contained to ~1 acre, HPD issued citation to owner. Special Services/Events: 1) Company 1 assisted with a water play day for the YMCA day care program on October 9. BATTALION 2 West Hawai‘i Incidents: 1) 09/26 Inc# 18304 Structure fire Ho’okena Beach Rd. 2) 10/11 Inc. # 19432 Boat in Distress 1 Mile off shore from Kailua. 3) 10/18 Inc#19874 Search and Rescue 10 YO Male in Ocean View. 4) 10/20 Inc# 20031 Rescue 60 Male fell into 35 foot deep Lava tube Ocean View. 5) 10/22 Inc# 20171 Brush Fire District 9 Hawaiian Homes, Approximately 5 acres. Private Dozer created a fire Break around fire. Incident terminated 10/24 at 1600 6) 10/24 Inc# 20353 Brush Fire District 15 Hwy 270 MM11. 2 Acres burned and extinguished. 7) 10/25 Inc. #20493 Brushfire Hwy 270 11mm. Training and Edcation: 1) 10/26/20 Company 14A on duty Training with C2 at Hāpuna Beach Park. Bailout, Bill Pugh, Safety operations and Training. SPECIAL OPERATIONS Hazmat 1) HAZMAT ID units update: Kaumana In-Service training has been completed. 2) Gas Monitors update: The inventory process has identified a few missing items. Batteries for 4 of the Gas Detectors were missing. The vendor was contacted and has the missing items shipped. In-Service training for these units are scheduled for Nov 9-10. 3) Dates for our upcoming Haz-Mat Technician Basic Training Course: New dates have been set. The class will be held from Nov 9-20 in Hilo at the Hilo ARFF station. 4) Baseline and Annual Medical Monitoring for all Haz-Mat personnel update. Price Term Agreement has been awarded to Diagnostic Labs. AC Okinaka is working with the vendor to finalize documents and will schedule the testing for our personnel once all is set. 5) AC Okinaka submitted request to use CARES Act funding to purchase replacement Tyvek Suits for HazMat teams and also add on for all stations. Awaiting response from Finance. Ocean Safety 1) Metzler Construction donation to finish ground work for the storage container at Hapuna Beach has been approved. The work has also been completed on Oct 23-25. Awaiting installation of Storage container. 2) Work to replace Hapuna Alpha tower and relocate old tower to Spencer beach has been completed. We now have a LG tower at Spencer Beach again. 3) New LG Tower cell phones have been received. We are awaiting programming of Survey App by CD. 4) AC Okinaka has been working on WSO transfers and hiring to fill vacant WSO position by Dec 1. WSO III promotion planning still in progress. 5) SKI-2 assisted with support for C2 training at Hapuna on Oct 26 with Company 14. Rescue 1) AC Okinaka continues to work with HFD Instructors on planning for Confined Space Training for Rescue and Hazmat personnel. 2) We continue to look for supplemental funding opportunities to conduct upgrades to RB7-7 (Force). Needed upgrades and repairs are for fuel tank leak, motor replacements, and hull extension. Upon completion of work, we are planning on decommissioning RB2-2 (Boston Whaler) which has passed its ideal service life for a Rescue Boat. Sayre Foundation 1) Our department has just been informed that we will be receiving an additional Wildland Tanker from the same donor who donated the last 2. The new unit will be a Big Dog apparatus. Expected completion date is January 2021. 2) Other updates from Laura Mallery-Sayre, shows that (as expected) we may not be as successful with donation this year as has been with previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we will make the best of what we are able to acquire. V. Support Services Division TRAINING: 1) 49th Recruit class completed their 2week long driver training class. One week of classroom, followed by one week of behind the wheel driving and CDL cones course. 2) Stripped and waxed the floors in the training classroom, training office, and stn.3’s office. 3) Detailed all of the training division’s vehicles and training engines. 4) 49th Recruit class went through the Mechanic shop orientation with FORD specialist Fire Mechanic Jason Rowland. They learned key information about vehicle maintenance and watch out situations. 5) 49th Recruit class went down to help Chief Todd clean and reorganize the warehouse. 6) Completed the 49th Recruit class swearing in ceremony at Hilo ARFF station. 7) Completed week long Fire Ground Survival course. VOLUNTEER TRAINING: 1) All East-side volunteer companies received a class on Community Risk Reduction based on chapter 22 of Essentials of Firefighter 7th ed. Followed by a wet drill. 2) Assisted Eldred and county fiscal in inventorying volunteer assets. 3) Began communications with state DOFAW to participate in Federal Excess Personal Property Program and Firefighter Property Program. Currently awaiting approval from USFS to view available federal surplus apparatus. 4) Participated in 2 Zoom meetings with fire science classes at HCC to attempt to recruit new volunteers. 5) Training Topic for October: Firefighting Foam Training using the Target Solutions Training Program consistent with NFPA 1001. 6) Pu‘uanahulu Co. 16 Bravo had a major water leak on the user side of the meter. Napu‘u Water usage was 675% over the normal average water usage for the last 3 months. The usage was 67,110 gallons. It was a 1” drisco pipe, which was unearthed with the kokua of a civilian by the name of Kamuela Bertelman and his mini excavator. Once the leak was exposed a temporary repair was made to stop the leak. 7) Met with Neal Azevedo of DPW highways about a more permanent solution for Pu‘uanahulu Co. 16 B water line. The current Drisco water pipe is 17 yrs. Old and is well beyond its life span (typically 7 yrs). So the plan is to retrench and install a schedule 80 pvc pipe on 10/28. 8) Pu‘uanahulu Co. 16 Bravo also received some Costco shelving, which were installed in the apparatus bay to provide some much needed storage capabilities. 9) There was a nice article was published in West Hawaii Today about our HFD volunteer Firefighters. 10) Volunteer Captain vehicle HFD 465 is now being parked at Station 21. EMS BUREAU: 1) Training and Education • Our 49th fire recruit class has successfully completed EMT training and have all been state licensed. • We have 5 personnel that have successfully completed paramedic school • We have approx. 9 personnel interested in our next MICT class set for January 2021. • We are preparing to recertify our department in American Heart Association’s BLS CPR course using HeartCode. • Assisting the Hawai‘i Police Department with CPR / AED training • Working on EMT and MICT retraining that is in line with CAPCE for recertification. • Working on future mental health first aid classes for our personnel. • Coordinating more CISM training for our personnel to increase our CADRE ▪ Our CISM team has seen an increase of activations this year • The Hawai‘i Fire Department is partnering with various private and public agencies to become a “Heart Safe Community”. ▪ The main objective of this project is to bring everyone together in our community for the purpose of saving a life. • We have been in meetings with HCC regarding future EMT classes through the Fire Science program. 2) Community Outreach: • Our community paramedicine program continues to be successful ▪ Our CP program continues to work with multiple different agencies and assisting people in our community with a wide range of daily challenges. • COVID ▪ We have been very busy with various different aspects of this pandemic. ▪ Operations / safety / PPE / decontamination / best practice protocols / education / various care home challenges / new equipment to increase responder safety / dispatching protocols / testing / contact tracing / outreach in areas of clusters • Capt. Domingo will be guest speaker at Hilo Medical Center’s “Specialty Care to Rural Health and Tropical Medicine” conference. ▪ Capt. Domingo will be presenting on initiatives taking place to increase cardiac arrest survival in our community. 3) Budget: • Currently working on our FY 20-21 budget. • Submitted our FY 21-22 budget request. • FY 20-21 ambulance bid in the process of being awarded. This would be for Medic 14. 4) Operations: • Increasing our communications with all of our base station hospitals and critical access facilities. • Connecting with our extended care facilities. COVID concerns and responder safety, and updating affected stations and medics. • Working on C-2 contract. • Rolled out our MDI Albuterol protocols. • Received 12,000 3M #1860 N95 mask (this is the “gold standard”). Captain Wong is in the process of fit testing this mask with line personnel. • We will be sending out our pediatric video intubation equipment shortly. This will allow our personnel to intubate pediatric patients with a safer technique. • We are in the process of performing audits on all of our medics so we can apply for renewal of our state ambulance license. We are also doing an audit of C-2. • We continue to monitor PPE burn rates and our PPE CACHE. PREVENTION BUREAU: 1) The Fire Prevention Bureau assisted with the Covid 19 task force and community outreach. 2) The Fire Prevention Bureau assisted with the Covid 19 testing sites. 3) The Fire Prevention Bureau continued the 24 hour schedule and saw many benefits and continued interest from our Operations personnel. Six letters of interest to participate in the program in the coming months was received in October. 4) We have three TA Inspector participating in the program currently. 5) Six Personnel have finished online training; Fire Alarm Inspection and Testing and Fire Alarm Plan Review. 6) The Fire Prevention Bureau Investigated 2 fires. AUXILLIARY SERVICES: 1) Inventory of all 22# equipment for finance department (98% complete) • Closing out final items this week. 2) POE Switch Project (95% complete) • Will be delivering supplies and closing out this project November 5 and/or 12. 3) Electronic WMS System Project (70% complete) • EMS products are being loaded into system. PPE orders now going through online system. 4) Warehouse Re-organization Project • Training Storage Area (100% complete) • Area has been turned into repair and equipment loaner area. • 2nd warehouse cleanout project (90% complete) • PPE brought back from 2nd warehouse, project mostly complete. Should be completed by end of November. 5) Repairs/Purchases/Maintenance: • Stn 3: Oneshot project no progress. • Stn 4: Generator fluctuations are causing radio system to malfunction. Generator tech recommended signal conditioner, DPW electrician stated had no idea how to deal with installing a signal conditioner. Escalated issue to DPW management. • Stn 5: Two radio headsets sent in for repair, being processed. • Stn 7: Holmatro cutter broken, sent to Maui for repair, completed. • Stn 7: Freezer broken, new unit purchased, delivery in October • Stn 8: Freezer broken needs replacement, delivery in November • Stn 10: garage doors repaired, additional door popped off track and is in need of repair. • Stn 11: Fridge broken needs replacement. Sent to Finance to put out for bid. • Stn 20: Edraulic ram sent to hurst for repair • Stn 21: Generator issues, Oven purchased, and work order placed to build out cabinet for oven installation. • Stns 8, 14, & Training: Need additional storage, interested in 20’ or 40’ containers if possible • Stn 16B exterior water line was trenched and exposed, water leak has been repaired. 6) Projects on hold: • Volunteer Website Pages • Contract to add Bullard wipes for after scene decon, and Bullard care kits to contract to issue with the new FXR350 helmets. • Plymovent Repairs Project 7) Other: • Bluetooth radios for Hazmat have been programmed and are live, completed by Chief Smith. • Radios firmware is being updated through light duty personnel and county radio shop • Motorola Radio system for fire is getting a new code plug, which we will be installing with updated firmware • Three pack radios currently in the process of getting quotes for repair. • Fit testing team will be taking Posicheck 3 out to stations to do annual testing for SCBAs and masks. DISPATCH: 1) Two fire radio dispatcher have moved to shift work training on the dispatch floor. MECHANICS: 1) Implementing a new vehicle status tracking board through Trello. VI. New Projects/Business • Continue to Work with DPW, Council, and Finance to replace the roof at the Pāhala Fire Station. Received word that the Fire Department cannot apply for the funding grant. Application needs to come from County as a whole. • Working with DPW, HPD, and Mayor’s office for new Civil Defense, Police, and Fire Radio Communications Center. • Continual Coronavirus assistance. VII. Employee/Public Relations • As indicated above in Section Reports.