For decades, fire departments have fought over staffing funding with budget masters, mayors, and city councils trying to get the revenue that put fire fighters on the street. The problem, simply put, how can you prove that the absence or presence of a fire fighter may have made a difference on an emergency call? Its true that fire departments have in the past had a hard time justifying their existence because the lack of statistics or the fight over their interpretation. Other reasons were that budget managers found that hiring fire fighters or police officers was not as “glitzy” or public relations “fertile” as perhaps other spending choices.
One of the battle grounds for fire fighter staffing has been crew size. Many departments, both volunteer and paid, respond with only one or two fire fighters on a fire engine because that’s what they have funding for. Other departments because of budget cuts have reduced staffing from four or three people on an engine or even shut stations or equipment down because they can’t afford to. In the case of Lacey Fire District, we have a fire station that used to have three people assigned to it, and its now down to two. And at the main station, we are frequently shutting down the ladder truck or an aid car because we lack staffing to keep it them on the road. To most people, this problem goes un-noticed but for the responders, we can tell you its huge problem!
Last month, the National Institute of Science and Technology released a study that stated that the number of fire fighters on a crew or fire engine has huge implications on the efficiency or effectiveness of the said crew. The study found simply that a fire crew of two people versus three people trying to do the same common fire fighting tasks at a house fire were several minutes slower on average than the bigger crew. And with the same numbers of people trying to do a search and rescue in a home that the crew of three was 25% faster over the shorthanded crew.
Here’s a quote from the federal researchers, “The fire modeling showed clearly that two-person crews cannot complete essential fireground tasks in time to rescue occupants without subjecting either firefighters or occupants to an increasingly hazardous atmosphere.”
If you would like to read the report for yourself please go here.
We hope you consider that next time you see a fire engine with one or two people on it, ask yourself are they really saving money or lives? This study is proving the obvious.