Saturday, July 17, 2004
EDITOR:
I would like to address a couple of topics that have arisen lately, especially pertaining to the issue of a joint fire district between the city of Salem and Perry Township.
The first topic deals with training. Councilwoman Nancy Cope, finance committee chairperson, made the statement at the finance committee meeting on July 12, (in reference to paid vs. volunteer) that: "All firefighters are trained the same." Under the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 4765.55, the number of hours required for entry level paid firefighters has increased to what is referred to as the "240 hour" class. This same law restricts the number of hours for volunteers to 36. Once the firefighter has completed this basic entry level training, their continued training falls under the "authority having jurisdiction" -- their individual fire department. It has been my experience with a lot of volunteer fire departments that this constitutes very little. True, this can also be the case in a paid fire department, but here are some training statistics for just one shift (there are three) for the Salem Fire Department. In just the first half of 2004, this shift accumulated 122 classes (amounting to approximately 152 hours of training). This training covered a wide range of topics from Emergency vehicle driving/ operations, hose handling, and other general topics to wild land fires, church fires, and industrial fires. This also encompasses preplanning tours of individual structures within the City of Salem. Firefighters also accrue department training and individual training such as at the State Fire School in Toledo or the Ohio Fire Academy in Reynoldsburg.
Here are some of the things that make up an average work day:
1) Fire truck and fire department vehicle inspection and maintenance. Each vehicle is assigned to a day of the week and is thoroughly inspected, checked out and ready for service. This includes any equipment and tools on that vehicle. Any minor maintenance and/or repairs is done at that time. If a major problem is found, we are responsible for scheduling the vehicle into a repair facility and insuring that the problem is rectified.
2) There is station maintenance. Each morning the station is given a general cleaning. Each day a particular section of the station is assigned and given a thorough cleaning. Any minor repairs are done at this time and any major repairs are turned in to the service department.
3) The fire department also does fire safety classes and tours for any civic group or school that requests them. The first half of this year (Jan 1 - June 30, 2004) this shift conducted twelve such classes. The groups that have requested this service include: Cub Scouts, preschools, kindergartens, and elderly care facilities. The requests for this service generally more than doubles the second half of the year. The department honors all requests for this service, from both inside and outside the corporate limits of the city, as long as the group comes to the fire station.
4) The department also conducts fire safety inspections. The fire safety inspectors must attend approximately two weeks of training over and above their regular firefighter training to become certified fire safety inspectors. Once again, on this shift there has been approximately 63 fire safety inspections done during the first half of 2004. The fire safety inspector is also responsible for determining the cause of any fires that do occur on their shift.
All of this is done in addition to responding to the calls that come into the fire department. There was a total of 389 calls responded to during the first half of 2004 of which 116 were responded to by this shift.
All residents are welcome to stop by your fire department and check out your equipment and ask any questions that you may have at anytime. The doors are always open, unless we are out on a call.
Lt. JIMMIE LEE SMITH
Salem Fire Department