Chief provides fire department report
During the Wednesday Susanville City Council meeting, Susanville Fire Department Chief James Moore presented the department report for various statistics, responses, grants and trainings for a period spanning about five months.
According to the report, from Nov. 3 until March 21, the fire department responded to 511 incidents for a total of 249.84 hours. Of those incidents, there were five building fires, three chimney or flue fires, two fires in motor home, one vehicle fire, 371 medical assists, seven motor vehicle accidents with injuries, six motor vehicle accidents with no injuries extrication, 18 gas leaks (natural gas or propane) and two hazardous conditions (BHO Lab).
The remaining incidents were public service assistance, service calls, assisting the police, good intent calls, heat detectors, smoke detector, carbon monoxide detectors or alarm system activations.
Fire responses
Staff responded to five building fires, and two explosive hazardous conditions for a total of 214 man-hours.
- Monrovia Street, Nov. 20 with 13 personnel for a total of 26 man-hours
- Hospital Lane, Dec. 13 with 15 personnel for a total of 105 man-hours
- Limoneria Avenue, Jan. 9 with 3 personnel for a total of 8 man-hours
- Pardee, Feb. 1 with 7 personnel for a total of 14 man-hours
- Orange Street, Feb. 19 with 10 personnel for a total of 35 man-hours.
- Main Street, March 1 with 4 personnel for a total of 4 man-hours
- Carroll Street, March 9 with 11 personnel for a total of 22 man-hours
Local OES
Susanville Hazmat Team OES HM32 consists of 22 members from multiple agencies within Lassen/Plumas County.
“Things are going well there, they’re training a lot,” Moore said Wednesday.
There were 272 training hours logged for this time period for HazMat Team training. Chemical Safety Training has provided members of the OES HM32 along with other multiple agencies around Lassen and Plumas counties with HAZ Mat Incident Commander Course, and Advanced Hash Labs and Scene Safety. The training will also provide ways to reclaiming of solvents, burn-offs, and the dismantling of hash labs, fire investigation of hash labs, prosecution of hash labs, and scene safety will also be a primary focus.
Staff and Volunteers
Currently the Susanville Fire Department is fully staffed with nine paid staff (fire chief, assistant chief, one captain, two engineers, three firefighters and administrative assistant). The volunteer organization currently has 23 volunteers (one assistant chief, one captain, two lieutenants, 16 volunteers and four incident support personnel).
The department continues to have dedicated volunteers who come in for extra training, as engine operators, driver training, and help assist with community events, and provide coverage at the station due to multiple emergencies, traffic collisions, etc.
Prevention
The local department conducted 24 annual business inspections, 10 new business inspections, 21 re-inspections, one self-inspection and one unscheduled inspection.
Training
According to the report, about 1,280 training hours were logged for this quarter. The training consisted of self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), 123 hours; live fire training, 117 hours; fire behavior and extinguisher theory, 63 hours; equipment location and use, 63 hours; forcible entry, 53 hours; salvage and overhaul, 51 hours; structure fire scenario, 49 hours; fire fighter safety, 48 hours; tool and equipment maintenance and repair, 45 hours; pump operations, 36 hours; ropes, knots and hitches, 28 hours; others consisted of CPR/AED, hydrant lays, advancing hoseline, vehicle extrication, and ventilation.
Upcoming, the California state firefighter association is providing live fire training on April 24 and 25.