The Round Table
departments
No matter what scientific mumbo-jumbo was used to justify it, the manning level for a fire company has traditionally been arrived at “by guess and by God.” More recently the manning level has been arrived at by the amount of money available to pay the fire fighters. Neither method is, of course, satisfactory.
With this in mind, what in your opinion, and for your department, is the proper manning level for a ladder company and an engine company? And how many men do you run on each piece?
B.J. McCarrel, Chief, Casper, Wyo.: In my opinion, there has been too much emphasis put on the manning of equipment. We fire chiefs have the tendency to judge a department by the size of the department in manpower rather than how good a job is the department doing. We should measure not just the fire fighters riding the apparatus, but what the department is doing as a whole, including those in fire prevention, training, maintenance and dispatch personnel. In our department, I’m sure that many chiefs would look at us and say we are undermanned to their standards.
My philosophy is that if your department has well trained personnel that are flexible and can do any job required of them, you can get by with fewer personnel and still keep your losses down.
Normally, we have not less than three men on an engine company in the residential areas. Four men are assigned to an engine company which responds to business, commercial and high life hazard areas. Two men are assigned to the elevating platform, two men are assigned to the utility squad truck and one man is assigned to the 85-foot aerial truck.
Response time in our city is less than four minutes to one area. Normal response to a residential fire is two pumpers, one utility squad and a battalion chief; a total of nine men. Response to the business or commercial districts is normally three engine companies, the aerial ladder, the elevating platform, the utility squad and a battalion chief. We have fewer personnel assigned to apparatus than most departments, but with our response time, we are able to send more equipment and men to any given emergency. When the aerial or elevating platform is used, an additional engine company is dispatched to the scene and those personnel are assigned to these units.
Lonnie Bellamy, Chief, Bowling Green, Ken.: I feel that the minimum manning level for a ladder company should be five men and the maximum level should be six.
The minimum manning level of a pumper company, in my opinion, should be four men and the maximum should be five.
My department operates as follows:
The minimum on the ladder is two, while the maximum is three.
For the pumper, the minimum level is three men and the maximum is four.
I fell that to have less that five men on a ladder company and less tha6 four men on a pumper is extremely costly to a city due to lost work time and the high workmen’s compensation costs that result from injuries when men are taxed beyond any reasonable limit of human endurance as they try to save lives and protect property. Also, this results in many cases, in early disability retirements that are very costly as opposed to normal retirement cost to a city.
Last, but far from the least important aspect is that the poor taxpayers suffer the most. After all, it is their lives and property that are placed in jeopardy because of inadequate budgeting to insure them of a reasonable level of protection. As if this were not enough, they have to suffer increases in their insurance rates due to rate changes because of high fire loss.
I ask the question, which is the cheapest; a reasonable level of protection at a little more cost, or an inadequate level of protection at higher cost in the long run?
Claude D. Lang, Chief, Emporia, Kan.: First, let me commend you for the question. It is the very heart of all fire chiefs’ problems. I have 34 years in the fire service, 20 of them as chief.
We are a two fire station town and also operate .the county ambulance service with our fire fighters. We also have a county contract to provide fire protection to four townships.
We have a 100-foot aerial ladder and a 1250-gpm pump combination. For proper minimum manning, I feel there should be five fire fighters—two for setting up ground ladders and three to hook up pumps, place aerials in operation and perform rescues.
W’e have only one’ man assigned to our aerial for immediate response. He must drive to the scene, set ladders, rescue, place pump and aerial in operation and control pump and aerial.
I feel that for engine company manning, there should be a minimum of four men: one officer, an engineer, and two hose and nozzle men.
Most of the time in Emporia, we operate with three fire fighters on a pumper. When we are at full strength, we operate with four.
Jack M. Hamilton, Chief, Prescott, Az.: I believe that practical and cost effective manning levels in any fire department must of necessity, be based on the needs and particular circumstances with which that fire department must contend. Prescott is a unique community lying in the mountains of northwest Arizona. The community is primarily residential and development with wide separation between residential structures. A small commercial and industrial section exists and presents many problems to the fire department because of the age and condition of these structures. The vast majority of the emergency calls answered by our department are medical aid calls or residential fires.
As a result, we have found the safe, efficient cost-effective manning levels for both engine and ladder companies to be three fire fighters. Factors such as response times, training, apparatus and equipment availability all play an important part in how effective and efficient the manning levels of any fire department are.
I believe that an accurate indicator of a community’s ability to handle fire problems is the per capita fire loss. The use of this tool can be an important indicator to fire chiefs and city managers as to how effective and efficiently their fire department operates.
Prescott is blessed with an extremely favorable loss per capita figure of $2.04 while estimates for national averages of fire loss per capita are somewhere in excess of $20.
I would strongly suggest that cities evaluating the effectiveness of their fire departments utilize per capita fire loss figures in their search to determine the proper number of personnel to be assigned to fire supression units.
Edward C. Beecher, Chief, Lima, Ohio: At present, we man our Central Station pumper with five men—an operator, officer, two mask men and a tailgate man. Our Central aerial and outstation pumper and aerial trucks, however, are only manned with two men each.
I am satisfied with the manpower of our Central pumper (five men) but feel that our outstation pumpers and Central aerial should have at least three men each. Due to the distance of some of our calls to the township covered by contract, I feel that the first-in pumper should theoretically have four men to cover the approximately three-minute delay in the Central crew.
Finis W. Gray, Chief, Clarksville, Tenn.: I would recommend that ladder companies should be manned by six men and engine companies should be manned by five men.
Our department has four-man engines and our ladder company is usually dispatched with two to the scene to be met there with assistance.
Mike B. Perez, Chief, Laredo, Texas: In order that a pumper and ladder company can operate effectively, the pumper company should have a minimum of five fire fighters and the ladder should be manned with at least six fire fighters at all times.
The Laredo Fire Department currently operates six pumpers, one ladder, one airport crash unit and all with four men on each apparatus. By June 1979, we will have five men on two of the pumpers.
Bill Desormeaux, Chief, New Iberia, La.: I believe that the proper manning level for a ladder company should be a six-man maximum and a four-man minimum for an engine company. We run with a five-man minimum and an eight-man maximum on the ladder company and two and three men on the engine.
Gerald A. Beeson, Chief, Englewood, Colo.: We have five major pieces of apparatus and a minimum manning level of 17. We usually have three men assigned to an apparatus, with the exception of one engine company that has two. However, there are times when personnel will be moved, and this is determined by demand.
