News Update
Fire department reorganizes to address city growth
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
The McKinney Fire Department is determined to keep up with the city it serves, and it has a plan to do so.
McKinney Fire Chief Danny Kistner last week updated the McKinney City Council on the department's makeup, recent activity and short- and long-term goals. His main point: there is always room for improvement.
"The McKinney Fire Department will not only stay current with [ongoing industry] research, but we will be valued as an expert provider and emulated as a provider of best practice," Kistner told the council. "We owe this to the community for the privilege of serving as your firefighters... (and) to reduce suffering of all types.
"We will not experience a loss because of something we should have known but did not."
Kistner, who started as fire chief in July 2011, talked first about modern hazard service, and about what's now expected of firefighters. Their jobs entail fire suppression as well as emergency medical service (EMS), special rescue, fire prevention and education, and emergency management.
Of nearly 9,800 calls to service last year, about 37 percent were for fires and the rest were EMS calls. Thus far, the 2012 ratio has nearly mirrored that; there have been just more than 7,000 calls to service, with about 2,400 fire calls (34 percent) and about 4,500 EMS calls (66 percent) - good for a daily average of 18 EMS calls.
"In McKinney, we enter the homes, workplaces and lives of 25 to 30 people each and every day," Kistner said. "Daily firefighters are called to preserve life and property, often at great risk to their own personal safety and sacrifice of time spent away from their own families."
The United States Fire Administration reports that every year an average of between 3,000 and 4,000 people die in or from fires, and that about 100 firefighters die and 180,000 are injured in the line of duty.
McKinney has suffered close to $2 million in property damage and lost just one resident in fires over the past year.
To reduce those numbers, Kistner said, innovation in equipment, knowledge and training is necessary. But related requirements, like the two-in/two-out rule for structure fires and fire-inspector certification, "ultimately attack the public purse," he said.
"Fire service finds itself in competition with the shrinking dollar, as does everyone, and we must continue to find ways to reinvent ourselves in order to accomplish the mission," he added.
Such ways recently have included administrative restructuring (dividing the fire marshal's office into a development branch and investigation/enforcement branch), adopting universal fire training standards (same training across the board), and developing fire advisory, EMS advisory and IT advisory boards.
By enabling lower-grade firefighters to step in for higher-grade firefighters when necessary, the MFD has reduced overtime expenditures this year. About 14, 800 overtime hours cost the department $379,000 in 2009-10, and those numbers nearly doubled last calendar year. The department has paid $221,000 for about 11,000 overtime hours so far this year.
Kistner also expressed the benefits of improving the city's ISO rating, which is related to a community's firefighting capabilities and is sometimes used to calculate insurance rates. On a scale of 10 to 1, with 1 being the best, other area cities like Plano, Frisco and Mesquite have a Class 1 ISO rating. McKinney and Allen each have a Class 2 rating.
Mayor Brian Loughmiller questioned how much a rating improvement would benefit the city relative any costs necessary for that improvement.
"It's into the plan of the city in terms of attracting business," Kistner told Loughmiller.
"If a company was looking at places to decide to relocate, that may be one of the criteria they'd look at."
According to FireServiceInfo.com, a website with updates on fire service measures and trends, there isn't much incentive for a Class 2 city to strive for Class 1 because such a jump results in little to no difference in homeowner rates. Some insurance companies have even discontinued using ISO data to calculate rates, including State Farm which in 2001 shifted from ISO in Texas, according to the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
City Manager Jason Gray told the council that there can be a financial benefit to property owners, and that many cities include a high rating when attracting businesses. Still, he said the city is doing a cost-benefit analysis of whether pursuing a Class 1 rating is worthwhile.
"We certainly wouldn't want to go back from a 2 to a 3 or 4, because we have a lot more development north of (U.S. Highway 380)," Loughmiller said. "It would be good to be competitive with other cities from that standpoint."
The MFD determined its other strategic goals after reviewing studies and polling firefighters on the city's top priorities - a process "intending to get lower levels included in the decisions," Kistner said.
As the city expands in population and size, officials expect the fire department to do its part in the plan to address such growth.
"This council as a whole has tried, or is trying, to become more in the realm of strategic planning and less on the operational, day-to-day side of how a department is managed," Loughmiller told Kistner. "However we can accomplish that to where we're not asked to...get in the weeds on every issue, I think that will strengthen the city as a whole and your department."
McKinney Fire Chief Danny Kistner last week updated the McKinney City Council on the department's makeup, recent activity and short- and long-term goals. His main point: there is always room for improvement.
"The McKinney Fire Department will not only stay current with [ongoing industry] research, but we will be valued as an expert provider and emulated as a provider of best practice," Kistner told the council. "We owe this to the community for the privilege of serving as your firefighters... (and) to reduce suffering of all types.
"We will not experience a loss because of something we should have known but did not."
Kistner, who started as fire chief in July 2011, talked first about modern hazard service, and about what's now expected of firefighters. Their jobs entail fire suppression as well as emergency medical service (EMS), special rescue, fire prevention and education, and emergency management.
Of nearly 9,800 calls to service last year, about 37 percent were for fires and the rest were EMS calls. Thus far, the 2012 ratio has nearly mirrored that; there have been just more than 7,000 calls to service, with about 2,400 fire calls (34 percent) and about 4,500 EMS calls (66 percent) - good for a daily average of 18 EMS calls.
"In McKinney, we enter the homes, workplaces and lives of 25 to 30 people each and every day," Kistner said. "Daily firefighters are called to preserve life and property, often at great risk to their own personal safety and sacrifice of time spent away from their own families."
The United States Fire Administration reports that every year an average of between 3,000 and 4,000 people die in or from fires, and that about 100 firefighters die and 180,000 are injured in the line of duty.
McKinney has suffered close to $2 million in property damage and lost just one resident in fires over the past year.
To reduce those numbers, Kistner said, innovation in equipment, knowledge and training is necessary. But related requirements, like the two-in/two-out rule for structure fires and fire-inspector certification, "ultimately attack the public purse," he said.
"Fire service finds itself in competition with the shrinking dollar, as does everyone, and we must continue to find ways to reinvent ourselves in order to accomplish the mission," he added.
Such ways recently have included administrative restructuring (dividing the fire marshal's office into a development branch and investigation/enforcement branch), adopting universal fire training standards (same training across the board), and developing fire advisory, EMS advisory and IT advisory boards.
By enabling lower-grade firefighters to step in for higher-grade firefighters when necessary, the MFD has reduced overtime expenditures this year. About 14, 800 overtime hours cost the department $379,000 in 2009-10, and those numbers nearly doubled last calendar year. The department has paid $221,000 for about 11,000 overtime hours so far this year.
Kistner also expressed the benefits of improving the city's ISO rating, which is related to a community's firefighting capabilities and is sometimes used to calculate insurance rates. On a scale of 10 to 1, with 1 being the best, other area cities like Plano, Frisco and Mesquite have a Class 1 ISO rating. McKinney and Allen each have a Class 2 rating.
Mayor Brian Loughmiller questioned how much a rating improvement would benefit the city relative any costs necessary for that improvement.
"It's into the plan of the city in terms of attracting business," Kistner told Loughmiller.
"If a company was looking at places to decide to relocate, that may be one of the criteria they'd look at."
According to FireServiceInfo.com, a website with updates on fire service measures and trends, there isn't much incentive for a Class 2 city to strive for Class 1 because such a jump results in little to no difference in homeowner rates. Some insurance companies have even discontinued using ISO data to calculate rates, including State Farm which in 2001 shifted from ISO in Texas, according to the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
City Manager Jason Gray told the council that there can be a financial benefit to property owners, and that many cities include a high rating when attracting businesses. Still, he said the city is doing a cost-benefit analysis of whether pursuing a Class 1 rating is worthwhile.
"We certainly wouldn't want to go back from a 2 to a 3 or 4, because we have a lot more development north of (U.S. Highway 380)," Loughmiller said. "It would be good to be competitive with other cities from that standpoint."
The MFD determined its other strategic goals after reviewing studies and polling firefighters on the city's top priorities - a process "intending to get lower levels included in the decisions," Kistner said.
As the city expands in population and size, officials expect the fire department to do its part in the plan to address such growth.
"This council as a whole has tried, or is trying, to become more in the realm of strategic planning and less on the operational, day-to-day side of how a department is managed," Loughmiller told Kistner. "However we can accomplish that to where we're not asked to...get in the weeds on every issue, I think that will strengthen the city as a whole and your department."
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