Departmental Newsletter
February 2018
Welcome to March. The month of February has seen many changes to the department with an influx of students into our Academy, the addition of a volunteer system, the addition of an ambulance crew system, event supervision being made to the public and a mass removal of members who fail to show dedication to the department. The department has undergone multiple changes, however, we've pulled through with a successful month that we can be proud of. We've managed to gain a few reinstatements of previous employees and induct a few employees that have displayed brilliance within the Fire Officers team, all of which are making significant progress and helping to maintain a stable department and allow the consistent output of quality services. The month of February has been one to be proud of, and we can't wait to pull through March and achieve a similar outcome, if not better.
We've achieved six new additions to our line-up of apparatus; three medical motorcycles and three medical bicycles. These will be used in coordination with our new event supervision service to allow events hosted by the public to be handled with extreme swiftness and efficiency. Furthermore, they'll be utilized by our Community Relations division to allow for their events to be fully supervised by experienced and qualified medical staff without the need for a bulky Rescue Ambulance or Fly Car. All six vehicles are equipped with BLS equipment to allow for the quickest medical care possible. This will allow for the stabilisation of patients to the fullest extent until further medical assistance arrives, however events are unlikely to need further medical assistance unless extreme injuries are acquired, which further develops the efficiency of these vehicles.
The quality of our medical and firefighting services is extremely important to myself and the entirety of the supervisory team of the department. We want our public to feel safe and secure in the hands of our EMTs. As of late, it has come to my attention that the public [b]do not[/b] feel as though the Fire Department do an appropriate job when on scenes and treating those who are in dire need. I can state with great pleasure that the quality of our medical services are of only the highest and most knowledgeable quality within the state. Our medical services teach for every single possible situation; midwifery, intraosseous drug administration, cricothyrotomy, intravenous drug administration, rapid sequence intubation, chest needle decompression (primary spontaneous pneumothorax, secondary spontaneous pneumothorax, catamenial pneumothorax, traumatic pneumothorax, iatrogenic pneumothorax, tension pneumothorax, etc.), intramuscular drug administration, advanced airway management and more. We also teach proper medical terminology that advances beyond any previous versions of the department to inform our employees of the full extent of their necessary medical training; sinus tachycardia and bradycardia, sinus arrest, atrial and ventricular fibrillation, paroxsymal supraventricular tachycardia, eupnea, bradypnea, apnea, dyspnea, hyperpnea, hyperinflation, pulseless electrical activity, trepopnea, ponopnea, acute respiratory distress syndrome, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, congestive heart failure, pulmonary embolism, etc. I hope the quality of our services is fortified in the minds of the public within the next month so that the extensive training that each of our employees go through does not go unnoticed and unnecessary, however it brings me a slight sense of joy that our employees haven't had to utilise such advanced treatment; this means that the general health of the public is increasing and harsher conditions that require such extensive treatment is not necessary.
In the recent months, RCFD has been notably lower than the community seems to need. To help combat this issue we have been increasing our attempts at community outreach and even began a new "Volunteer" system that allows members of the Red County community to help us when we need it. The activity, recently, has been growing more and more due to a recent rise in accepted applications. We always strive to help our community when they need it most, and we are always striving for improvement in activity. Along with recruitment outreach, our internal activity of divisions has also been slightly revamped to increase the productivity and deployments of divisions. Since the date of 01FEB18, we have left only 4 911 calls unaccounted for, and 3 of those calls were believed to be hoax calls due to the triangulation of the location of the call as well as the reported location of that call along with the withholding of information and the name of the caller.
Our recent efforts in applications have proven benifical as we went through a period of time where we saw an increase in applications by over 450% in a one week timeframe. We are currently see a "better-than-ever" rise in community interest with our department. Our recruitment process has an average of 8 hours for responding to applictions as well as completing the next steps of our recruitment process hand-in-hand with each other to eliminate the delay to the hiring process.
Our R&T team holds great pride in stating our recent batches of academy students are being held to an even higher standard required to pass our academy stage. We have decided as a group that our recent lack in knowledge within previous NCO teams needed to be addressed, and where better to start than our very own academy. Since the change, we are extremely happy to report that our NCO team and probationary members show great potential in exceeding our standard expectations.
Recently, the Red County Fire Department decided to invest in refurbishing the current rescue ambulances in order to make them:
- More sterile;
- More in line with traditional EMS colors for aesthetic ease;
- More equipped;
- More spacious;
- More fashionable; and
- More efficient.
Our investment returned excellent results, with each of our units being fitted up with a clean and sleek new design to allow all of our patients to experience the most comfortable form of transport to hospital. The design comes with an easy turquoise color and comes fitted with a stretcher, two benches, compartments for EMS apparatus and a built-in ECG (Lifepak) which allows for EMTs or Paramedics to provide treatment throughout transport for the optimal stabilisation in pre-hospital care. This addition clocked the department around $429,999 per unit, totalling at $4,299,990 for the entirety of our fleet to be remodelled.
(( This interior can be accessed by pressing Y or using /enter whilst inside of the ambulance. You can then exit the interior with H or /exit. The purpose of this interior is to allow members of the faction to roleplay with you during transport, as well as to fit more than two people into the back of the ambulance and to allow for a much more aesthetic and immersive transportation. ))
Hopefully you won't have to take a ride in the back of an ambulance anytime soon but, if you do, at least your transportation will be more pleasant due to our investment.
During the month of February, the Fire Department received a substantial amount of reinstatement requests compared to other months. Overall, the department received [b]sixteen[/b] reinstatement requests, fifteen of which were successful or are still pending. Out of those fifteen successful reinstatement requests, three of them were offered & reinstated into Fire Officer positions within the department. This, combined with the immense amount of applications received during the month, has resulted in a massive boost to the amount of people employed by the Red County Fire Department to assist the public. Zeke Swiger, our new Battalion Chief, was reinstated as a Fire Captain. Caroline Shay, who is no longer in the department, and Jamie Cole both also reinstated as Fire Lieutenant and Fire Captain respectively. Meanwhile, the others were offered positions ranging from Probationary Firefighter up to Firefighter II. This increase in employment surely shows a bright future ahead, as people have been noticing the vast improvement within the department and wish to return to their duties.
Late February, an Event Supervision system was implemented by Fire Chief Richard Bleakley. Supervised and handled entirely by the Community Relations division, this program allows members of the public and other organizations to request the Fire Department to oversee any events they may be planning, such as marathons or races. The Community Relations division will dispatch assigned EMTs and Paramedics to the event on specialized units chosen for the specific type of event to be able to provide rapid medical care to anyone who requires it on scene without having to wait for a bulky Rescue Ambulance to arrive first. This allows for quick assistance provided by the Fire Department who're already on scene. Implemented only a few days ago, we've already received a request for an event to be supervised and the Community Relations division is handling it. Hopefully medical care won't have to be provided, but if it does, we'll be ready!
Employee of the Month
The Employee of the Month award is granted to those who show extreme dedication and initiative for the department to the point where it is noticed by the Fire Officers and Chief Fire Officers, going completely above and beyond the line of duty in their service to the public. For the month of February, the award has been given to Amanda Carter. Throughout the month of February, Amanda Carter has shown nothing but excellence during her time in the department, with countless staying online for hours at a time when nobody else is online to assist her and yet still powering through every call she can with exceptional performance.
Exceptional Probationary Award
The Exceptional Probationary award is granted to those who display tremendous amounts of dedication to the department and show it in the field and have overall incredible performance during their probationary period. For the month of February, the award has been given to:
- Dylan Brooks
- Amanda Carter
- Tanaquil Snow
Throughout their probationary period, these three have displayed great dedication to the department and treated countless patients, often being forced to patrol alone due to the lack of available units and still performing well without people to guide them on patrol. Therefore, they have all three been granted the Exceptional Probationary award.
I've decided to implement an Ambulance Crew system. Similar to our company system, this allows our EMTs to make use of our newly refurbished ambulances and patrol with three or four members of the department for excellent medical scene coverage and friendship development within the department. This allows for members to consistently patrol with the same people day-in and day-out, allowing them to enjoy their shift a lot more with their friends and provide exemplary teamwork due to the already-formed bonds of all occupants of a singular ambulance crew. Hopefully, this will provide an incentive to come on-duty a lot more, but if that doesn't then perhaps incentives regarding rewards for optimal and high-quality ambulance crews would allow for an incentive to form such a crew. You'll likely find an ambulance with a few members, often one paramedic with the rest being EMTs, patrolling and looking to help the public in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Be sure to interact with our employees to learn a little more about our department, we're guaranteed to be friendly and comforting to the people we serve.
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