Fall 2011 Issue: Chief Comments

Thank you for visiting this site.  We are excited about providing our newsletter “The Dispatch” in electronic form.  We hope that you find information here to be interesting and informative. 

In this day of mass social media, it is extremely hard to provide up-to-date and pertinent information, but that is what we hope to accomplish here.  This is your Fire Department and we want you to know all there is to know about it.  We promise to try and keep current information available to you, so please sign up for this service. 

These economic times have been challenging for everyone including the Fire Department.  We have seen property values across the Emergency Services District decline the last two years even while demands for service have continued to rise.  This is not a healthy business model so we must continue to look at ways to provide service in the most efficient manner possible.  Emergency services districts in Texas are limited to a 10-cent tax levy.  That means we are not only fighting fires as you would expect, but also responding to hazardous materials incidents, technical rescues, medical emergencies, prevention activities, code enforcement and public education, just to name the more common activities we do every day.  And, all of this is within the same 10-cent based budget.

Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2/Pflugerville Fire Department provides service to an estimated 97,000 people spread over 77 square miles.  Obviously, growth continues in this area and that stretches our present resources to the limit.  We respond to an average of over 15 of your emergencies every day of the week.  That totals to more than 6,000 alarms for help during a year.  Today we manage to do that with 5 crews of firefighters that respond out of our four stations around the District.  Remember that a number of the calls require we send more than one crew since there are never more that 4 people assigned on a crew.  (We call them companies).  As an example the current recommended technique of CPR takes a minimum of 3 people to perform, and it’s an exhausting task.   

This is National Fire Prevention Week in the United States.  Here we call the month of October Fire Prevention Month, because it takes us that long to deliver our public safety messages to all the elementary schools in the District.  We spend a great deal of effort on this because we believe imprinting public safety with the youth will reap the benefit of safer life habits as these young folk mature.  We hope you can visit us during one of our District Open Houses.  The dates and times are posted on this site.

Recently some of the public media sources have called for consolidation of all the fire departments in Austin/Travis County.  It appears that the fires during the week of Labor Day started these editorial commentaries that are couched in better service to our communities through consolidation.  Making public policy on the heels of disaster is not necessarily the best of government practices.  This knee jerk claim that the fires would have been better managed is simply ill-founded. 

All of the incidents were managed by fire personnel using the National Incident Management System (NIMS), as required by federal mandate.  Management and coordination could not have been improved by any great measure.  All the departments in Travis County are dispatched by Austin Fire Department, so all personnel and equipment is coordinated through a single entity.  This was supported by the Austin-Travis County Emergency Operations Center as events unfolded.  

There simply were not enough resources to throw at the multiple incidents going on at the same time.  The whole episode started with 4 major events in the Pflugerville area, followed by Steiner Ranch, then Bastrop County and then the Spicewood area.  Again, there were not enough personnel or equipment to address all that was going on at the same time.  This is much the same case as in disasters like tornadoes, or hurricanes, or floods.  No one entity is able to tool up to handle the not so often disaster that may be faced by any community.  Consolidation would not have given us any more equipment or personnel unless the proverbial pot of gold comes with it.

The experience we had in our District was mitigated by a number of factors.  First, all our senior commanders were called back on duty immediately during the first fire of the day.  Secondly, fires in our District began earlier in the day and we were the first to request outside agency help.  At one point, we had all three StarFlight helicopters dropping water on our fires.  We made early defensive decisions that moved the fire fronts away from structures, literally saving two neighborhoods in the process.  We actually had some fire apparatus ordered through the state-wide aid system that arrived in Pflugerville from as far away as Frisco and Mineral Wells.  Without these factors in play, we could have easily been part of the continued news reports of loss during that week.

I want to also assure you that we are taking a close look as individual departments as well as collectively to how we might better meet the next challenge like this.  We do this with all major incidents in order to continue improving how we serve you.  This is part of our continual system of evaluation to make sure we do our job safely and effectively while taking care of the public’s safety needs.

Under normal conditions, the recent fires would have been career defining events for many firefighters.  However, it does not appear that we have seen the last of challenges like this.  As you probably know, the long range forecast is for continued drought conditions.  That coupled with low humidity and windy conditions means these type fires can erupt at any time.  Please make time to look at the web sites recommended here and on our web site about making your property fire safe.  It can mean the difference during events like this.  Don’t let your guard down even if we get some of those stray showers.  Remember the damage has already been done in our ecosystem and the vegetation is going to take time to recover.  Most of what we see now is dead and will not recover so it remains fuel ready to burn.

I have attempted to cover several topics in this first edition of the new electronic newsletter.  As we go along, I want you to have solid factual information about your Fire Department.  That means we welcome questions you may have or even suggestions for topics you would like for us to address.  In the mean time, please practice Safety First!    

-Chief Ron Moellenberg