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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Cincinnati firefighter Adrian Burton (left) and District
Training Chief Lacey Calloway.
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A year after the Cincinnati Fire Division's head trainer said it was sorely behind on its veteran firefighter training, the situation is gradually improving -- but not to the satisfaction of him and at least a few of his former co-workers.
In January 1999, two weeks before he was to retire, a frustrated District Training Chief Allen Boyle wrote a two-page memo outlining the division's deficiencies, including being behind on refresher classes and not having adequate facilities or equipment to carry out hands-on classes.
For sending his memo to city council and not following the chain of command, Boyle was transferred out of his position for his final two weeks.
Since then, the fire division has created more time for veteran firefighter training by combining the usual spring and fall recruit classes into one spring class, which graduates in May. Plans are underway for a new series of veteran classes in the fall. A training facility is also a distinct possibility, with the effort led by Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
But Boyle, a 31-year department veteran, says the division could do a lot better. It hasn't received any additional money or training staff, and there's still a long way to go before it can catch up on the classes he believes every experienced firefighter should have.
The bottom line to it all, he said, is that the less firefighters practice their jobs, the less prepared they are to do them.
"If you don't use it, you lose it," Boyle said.
Fire Pioneers
Cincinnati boasts the first full-time, paid fire department in the nation, founded in 1853. The department developed a reputation as a leader in new technology and techniques.
But during the last few decades, the division stepped away from the cutting edge, according to Boyle.
When he joined the fire division in 1968, both the police and fire departments had five trainers. Now the police department has 23 full-time people in its training bureau, while the fire department has seven.
And while the police department lost and regained about 100 officers since 1973, according to police personnel statistics, the fire division hasn't regained the dozens of firefighters lost through the cutting of nine engine companies, two ladder companies and one paramedic squad since 1968, according to Boyle.
Boyle said the fire division should get firefighters into more safety-oriented training, such as a 16-hour, two-day firefighter survival class taught by the Ohio State Firefighter's Association.
"That should be done with everybody in the fire department," he said.
Boyle added that 1990 was the last year Cincinnati firefighters received a hazardous materials (hazmat) refresher class, which is required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration annually.
"Hazmat is one of my big pet peeves," he said.
Dave Collini, a member of the city's heavy rescue/hazmat unit, said he receives hours of training because of his specialized position, but that's not the case for regular firefighters.
"I don't believe they get enough training," Collini said.
Fire Apparatus Operator Harold Lucas rated training as one of his highest work concerns.
"I do think that training should be improved and more ongoing than it is," Lucas said. "I'd like to come home every day."
Lucas, who said he doesn't want to sound like a complainer, added that he did have a 40-hour emergency medical technician (EMT) refresher course this year -- another required class.
The city's fire chief and the department's head trainer, however, don't think training is as big of a problem as Boyle portrays it to be.
"I think I wouldn't do more training (if there was a chance)," said District Training Chief Lacey Calloway, Boyle's replacement. "I would just do more people at once."
Although Cincinnati Fire Division Chief Robert Wright said training could be better, he isn't sure about the value of the hazmat class Boyle mentioned. The first time Wright heard about it was when Boyle talked about it in CityBeat last year ("Out of the Fire," issue of Feb. 4-10, 1999). Calloway said he's planning a hazmat course in the fall, plus more EMT, officer, driving, substance abuse and other classes.
In the last year or so, Cincinnati firefighters have received customer service training -- required for all city employees -- plus 40-hour Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) update classes. Also, the firefighters, who work 24-hour shifts every three days, are required to spend a couple of hours drilling on basics during each shift, among other duties, according to Calloway.
The problem is, only four of the city's 40 companies can be taken out of service at once for training. That means only about 20 firefighters out of the division's 750 can be trained at a time, assuming the class lasts all day.
Stretching Dollars Thinner
Last summer, the fire division began a push for better training.
Five lieutenants took a break from their regular shifts to develop new training programs. But about a month after their work began, they had to return to their companies because the department couldn't afford to pay the overtime their replacements were getting. Each firefighting shift costs about $1,000 in regular salary.
The situation had its roots in a new union contract mandating that each company -- the basic unit of firefighting -- must have four people. Previously, eight of the city's 40 companies could be staffed with three people, while the rest had at least four. The four-person companies were mandated in response to safety concerns raised by effectiveness studies of three-person staffs.
"It was the first time the fire division had ever operated with so little flexibility in staffing," said Cincinnati Safety Director Kent Ryan, who oversees the police and fire departments. Firefighters also gained more flexible vacation time, making it more difficult to fill vacant spots. There just weren't enough firefighters available to avoid overtime.
While Cincinnati City Manager John Shirey said the responsibility for the fire division's budget begins with the chief, Wright believes the unexpected overtime stemmed from bad budget advice Shirey received from city staff.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Firefighters (L-R) Chris Cotter and Dale Schwettmann
check the generator on their truck.
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By October, unanticipated overtime had begun to pile up. Fall estimates called for $2.5 million of it in 1999. (The final total was $1.8 million, according to a March 8 memo by Shirey. That represents a 4 percent overage of the $42.5 million personnel budget.)
Ryan said the 1999 overage was a reasonable figure, considering it dealt with a new union contract, which can affect salaries and staffing in unforeseen ways. This year the department expects to control overtime better through increased staffing and a better understanding of the contract's effects, he said.
Going overbudget for overtime is unusual, although 1999's was the largest overage in recent years. The division also exceeded its overtime budget in each of the last four years, ranging from $176,000 in 1997 to $948,000 in 1998.
With Wright's back against a financial wall, in the fall he presented Shirey a list of ways to save money in the division. One of them included privatizing ambulance services, which was not well received by paramedics and firefighters and wasn't favored by Wright, either.
Several months after the ambulance privatization idea was abandoned, rumors began circulating about cuts to fire staffing or station closures, which Boyle said the city can't afford.
"It's like playing Russian roulette," he said.
The city administration, however, doesn't plan to cut the division's budget deeply enough to affect staffing, according to a March 22 memo from Cincinnati Finance Director Timothy Riordan. Then again, Cincinnati City Council's actions are difficult to predict, and the city is only beginning to work on its 2001-2002 biennial budget.
Doing Too Well?
The fire division came out on top in an annual city customer service survey released in March. Eighty-five percent of the 530 adult city residents surveyed said the city's fire protection is "good" or "very good." Maintenance of city parks was second, with a 79 percent good or very good rating, and Emergency Medical Services was third, with 78 percent.
To Shirey, that means the fire division is training its firefighters well.
"If performance were poor, that would be reflection on training," he said.
That's both a blessing and a curse, according to Wright.
"Normally, if you come out at the top of the survey, you get the least amount of resources," Wright said, adding that the departments doing the best seem most able to handle cuts. The opposite is true for the bottom of the list.
Shirey disagreed, saying that funding is handled on a case-by-case basis.
So, does the fire division's performance merit some sort of budget increase, or does it mean that its budget is serving them well?
"You can make arguments on both sides of that coin," Ryan said.
A cursory survey of three other large fire departments revealed that each provides about as much or somewhat more training than the Cincinnati Fire Division.
The 750 firefighters in the Indianapolis Fire Department receive about 60 hours of in-service training each year, given by four full-time instructors from March to December to avoid harsh weather, according to Capt. Tom Deal, assistant director of training. A separate full-time person trains the city's 65 paramedics.
Training ranges from basics such as hose handling to fire streams, plus the required EMT update, among other required courses. For the last couple of years, the department has been using vacant apartment buildings to sharpen fire skills, plus a vacant state hospital for driver training.
Like Cincinnati, the Louisville Fire Division provides two hours of basic training per shift for its 467 firefighters, with younger firefighters receiving more hours in certain areas, according to Lt. Col. Albert Tronzo, assistant training chief. But the division also provides 24 hours of hazmat training as part of a 100-hour per year in-service training schedule, which is handled by six full-time trainers. The Louisville division is also trying to open a driver training facility to complement its existing fire tower.
The Columbus Fire Division uses a former Catholic school for its classroom space, according to Battalion Chief Bob Babb, director of training. Five years ago, the division bought the underused school and the 20 acres it sits on for less than was asked by the Columbus Archdiocese, Babb said.
The division has an $8 million plan to build a fire training facility on the old school site, but so far the city hasn't fulfilled a promise to provide bond money for the project, he said.
Babb didn't have a complete training breakdown, but the division's 1,200 or so firefighters averaged 21 hours of in-service training in each of the last three months of 1999. Younger firefighters probably received more, while some older firefighters might have received none.
The training is handled by about 30 full-time staff members, ranging in rank from an assistant chief down to regular firefighters.
Boyle cited Columbus as an example of good training.
"(Columbus is) driven by training," Boyle said. "Cincinnati doesn't have the (staff) to do that."
If the Cincinnati Fire Division had more instructors, it might be able to use its classrooms in Longworth Hall seven days a week, Wright said. Right now they're empty on the weekends.
More Education in the Works
Eighteen months ago, Phil Vossmeyer began creating an associates degree program in firefighting at Cincinnati State. Vossmeyer, the director of the fledgling Fire Services Training Program, is awaiting Ohio Board of Regents approval for the new program.
If approved, the degree will require 110 credit hours of classes, which would begin in September, and include some refresher training courses. Course ideas were created from suggestions from area fire departments during a series of meetings.
Area fire supervisors asked for, among other courses:
· A fire inspector's course;
· Hazmat training;
· Confined space training;
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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· Urban rescue training.
Initially, Vossmeyer expects experienced firefighters who want an associates degrees to enroll, but as word reaches area high schools he hopes to attract more new people to firefighting.
The degree also includes physical fitness and nutrition training. Firefighters who perish in the line of duty don't always die from burns or smoke inhalation -- Vossmeyer said heart attacks are an under-recognized killer at fire scenes.
Area fire departments also asked for a fire training facility where smaller departments could get more advanced training than usually available to them locally.
Right now, Cincinnati firefighters train at classrooms at Longworth Hall near Paul Brown Stadium, plus at sites near the CSX rail yard near I-74 and I-75 and at the corner of Liberty and Linn streets.
An eight-member committee began meeting in the fall with a March goal of identifying possible sites for a facility. The committee, comprised by Cincinnati-area firefighters and Cincinnati State staff, recently met that goal, Vossmeyer said.
Money is the major obstacle to building a training center, Vossmeyer said. The facility will probably require significant private contributions from "groups who have an interest in fire safety," according to Doug Heeften, vice president of Institutional Advancement at Cincinnati State.
Some preliminary drawings have been finished, Heeften said, but it's still early. The goal is to break ground on the first phase of a facility in the next couple of years.
It's also going to take a while -- maybe a few to five years -- for Cincinnati State to acquire the big-ticket equipment needed for hands-on training, such as a jaws of life or a fire truck, Vossmeyer said. He's hoping to get the expensive equipment through donations or for some sort of discount. One fire suit alone costs about $1,000.
Eventually, Vossmeyer hopes to partner with the University of Cincinnati, which offers officer-focused fire training. The two colleges could combine to offer a four-year degree in firefighting.
Tighter Budgets To Come?
In order to prevent future fire budget surprises, Shirey recently created the Fire Budget Oversight Committee, which is closely tracking expenses. The committee includes Chief Wright, a member of the city's finance staff and Rod Prince, assistant safety director.
The move doesn't seem to indicate a future filled with loose purse strings for the division. But how much more can the division be expected to improve with its current funding?
"We always think that we can do a better job (using city resources)," Shirey said.
Wright, who understood that it's Shirey's job to create a more efficient government, was less optimistic than Shirey that the fire division's budget could face more cuts without affecting service.
Tim McDonald, who retired an as assistant fire chief in January after 27 years with the division, is also skeptical. McDonald doesn't want to be seen as a complainer or as someone looking for an automatic handout, but the bottom line is that a dollar can only be stretched so far.
"I don't think there's any way to adequately train everybody without more support and more money," McDonald said. "We did, I think, what we could."
Although Wright would gladly accept more resources, he said maintaining the current budget is not out of the question.
"I'm not going to say that's unreasonable," Wright said. "Nobody gets 100 percent of what they want."
So how long can the fire division maintain its level of service under its existing budget and training levels? Chances are, that can only be adequately answered in retrospect.
At least concerning training, McDonald doesn't see a rosier near-future.
"I think we're going to be constantly trying to catch up," McDonald said. ©
