FIRE DEPARTMENT
MISSION STATEMENT: The Mission of the West Covina Fire Department is
to provide the highest level of life and property safety in a caring and cost
effective manner, and to continually strive to provide quality customer service for the Community, the Organization, and to one another.
The department is
comprised of a
combination of 84
dedicated firefighters
and civilian staff. The
members of the
department take extreme pride in serving the
citizens and visitors with the utmost respect
and compassion. The City's firefighters are
busy and active on emergency responses,
and therefore highly competent in
performing firefighting and emergency
medical operations.
The City's firefighters consistently:
- Respond quickly
- Treat people with respect and dignity
- Utilize experience and training to assist in the "most appropriate" manner
- Look for additional opportunities to make the community "safer"
From the period of July 1, 2004 to June 30,
2005, members of the fire department
responded to 7,057 emergency incidents.
These responses included 5,341 medical
emergencies, 1,496 public
assistance/hazardous conditions/mutual aid
calls, and 220 hostile fires, including 101
involving structures. The total fire loss for
the twelve-month period amounted to
$1,898,971. In early 2005, the fire
department experienced two fire fatalities
directly related to structure fires, one
involved an 80-year male and the second a
76-year old female.
The department serves the community by
responding from five strategically located
fire stations. The locations of the fire
stations are:
- Station One - 819 So. Sunset Avenue
- Station Two - 2441 E. Cortez Avenue
- Station Three - 1433 W. Puente Avenue
- Station Four - 1815 S. Azusa Avenue
- Station Five - 1650 E. Shadow Oaks Drive
FIRE DEPARTMENT DIVISIONS:
Emergency Operations - This is the
absolute core of the department's fire and
life safety protection services. Emergency
operations translate into having five fire
engine companies, one ladder truck
company, three paramedic ambulances, and
one high-ranking command officer on-duty
24 hours 365 days a year. These 26
professional and highly-skilled firefighters
are all cross-trained to respond to medical
emergencies, fires of all types and sizes,
transportation accidents, hazardous materials
spills, and the occasional someone's stuck in
something (elevator, automobile, swing set,
3rd floor balcony) type emergency.
Emergency operations is defined by the
CITY OF WEST COVINA BUDGET 199 2006-2008
capability to respond quickly and, regardless
of the nature of the emergency, mitigate and
resolve the problem efficiently. West
Covina's firefighters are exceptionally good.
The City's firefighters pride themselves on
aggressive interior-attack firefighting
techniques and the ability to efficiently bring
fires under control quickly. Through the
proper balance and deployment of
firefighting resources the community
consistently experiences low annual fire
loss. In addition to medical emergencies and
fires, the department annually responds to
approximately 1,500 additional calls for
service, ranging from infants locked in
vehicles, hazardous materials spills,
inadvertent fire alarm activations, and
responses to assist in adjacent communities
through mutual aid agreements.
Paramedic Ambulance Services - Approximately 75% of the fire department's
activity is directed towards emergency
medical services. The department delivers
extremely high-level emergency medical
care by providing one paramedic unit for
every 12,200 residents. Each of the
department's five fire engine companies, one
ladder truck, and three ambulances are
staffed by at least one firefighter/paramedic
capable of administering advanced life
support medical treatment. The department
assists approximately 5,300 patients
annually. About one half of these
individuals are in severe medical distress
and require paramedic level care. On an
annual basis, approximately 3,000 patients
are transported to area hospitals in one-of-
the-three fire department ambulances and
are assessed fees for medical treatment and
transportation services.
Fire Administration - In an effort to
provide appropriate leadership,
management, and fiscal oversight, fire
administration is responsible for overseeing
all aspects of the modern fire and life safety
delivery system. Staff assigned to fire
administration manage the department's
budget, labor relations, external affairs, fleet
of vehicles, grants, and provide strategic
planning. Fire administration staff remains
committed to providing training and
professional development opportunities for
first responders that are in-line with the
delivery of state-of-the-arts fire suppression,
rescue, and property conservation services.
In addition, staff oversees the City's
emergency preparedness effort. One
member of the fire department, as collateral
duties, serves part-time as the Coordinator
of Disaster Services and works closely with
the school districts, neighboring local
governments and allied agencies to optimize
all-risk preparedness efforts. All West
Covina firefighters receive specialized first-
responder training for response to natural
disasters and terrorism incidents.
Fire Prevention and Code Enforcement - The fire prevention division is responsible
for the management and enforcement of all
City of West Covina municipal fire codes,
and provides these services in an extremely
cost effective manner. Fire prevention staff
review building plans to ensure proposed
designs meet contemporary fire codes and
inspect commercial occupancies during the
various stages of construction. Specially
trained fire prevention personnel inspect fire
sprinkler systems, fire alarm systems,
hazardous storage, and verify that all fire
exits are provided and maintained. Staff
supports the City Council's goal of
"Downtown Revitalization" by assisting
private development concerns with various
fire code compliance options in the design
and construction of fire safe buildings.
The division is managed by the department's
fire marshal.
The fire marshal oversees one
full-time fire protection specialist and up to
10 volunteer auxiliary firefighters and 10
retired senior volunteers. The fire marshal
also manages the annual inspections of all
existing business and commercial
occupancies within West Covina. The fire
marshal coordinates closely with the City's
building, planning, and redevelopment
departments to ensure all planned
developments meet fire code standards and
all educational occupancies are designed
with fire safety as the primary concern.
The fire marshal is also responsible for
overseeing the department's fire
investigation unit. Trained fire investigators
work closely with detectives from the police
department and members of the San Gabriel
Valley Arson Task Force to identify, arrest,
and prosecute arson suspects.
FIRE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
FY 2005-2006 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- In concert with the City's Core Values,
provided "exceptional" customer service
by responding to citizen's requests for
assistance rapidly and with appropriate
resources.
- Reprogrammed the City's computer
aided dispatch system to move-up
internal firefighting resources.
- Revisited automatic aid agreements with
the Los Angeles County Fire
Department to ensure the efficient
sharing of local resources.
- Utilized modern deployment standards
to ensure that firefighters responded with
adequate force, keeping the majority of
fires small and firefighting operations as
safe as possible.
- Placed "grant funded" interoperable
portable radios in the hands of
emergency responders.
- Retrofitted City intersections with traffic
intervention system sensors that safely
change the traffic signal in the direction
of responding emergency vehicles. The
cost associated with the continued
installation of the traffic intervention
system is in the City's Capital
Improvement Program (CIP) budget.
- Ensured that emergency responders are
well positioned throughout the city to
facilitate immediate response by
combining automated and chief officer
monitoring activities.
- Firefighters trained frequently and
realistically in an effort to maintain and
improve core competencies.
Aggressively investigated fire causes
and prosecuted crimes of arson,
including the fire department's first
successful felony conviction.
FY 2006-2008 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Consistent with the City Council's Goal of
"Balancing the Budget," effectively allocate
paramedic ambulances to optimize cost
recovery opportunities
- Improve the administrative controls
to decrease the processing time and
error rate for handling ambulance
billing reports
- Collaborate with the local hospitals
to reduce the out-of-service time for
fire department ambulances
- Broaden firefighter recruitment
efforts to obtain a workforce that is
more reflective of the cultural
composition of the community and
the customers served
- Ensure continued technical
competency through comprehensive
training and professional
development
- Assure all emergency response
personnel receive mandated training
opportunities for the maintenance
and expansion of technical
firefighting and medical skills
- Implement a monitoring system to
identify and track individual training
activity
- Encourage senior managers to take
advantage of outside learning
opportunities
- Redesign and improve training
programs for recruit firefighters
- Through a consensus process
involving the community, City staff,
and department stakeholders,
complete a strategic plan by
December 31, 2006
- Meet frequently with the fire
department management team and
facilitate each Assistant Chief to
meet quarterly with assigned officers
- Host a minimum of two open
meetings with the West Covina
Firefighters Association membership
- In the spirit of enhancing
"development and revitalization,"
provide for the timely, fair, and
consistent application of inspection
services and code enforcement
- Assist developers, contractors, and
homeowners by providing high
quality customer service in the areas
of plan review and inspection
services
- Participate with other City agencies
to effectively communicate fire
department code requirements for
new developments
- Utilize a cost-effective combination
of career and volunteer human
resources to promote fire and life
safety, perform inspection and code
enforcement activities, and supply
the fire department
- Utilize public education
opportunities with local schools to
prove that West Covina is "a
community that cares for our
children"
- Actively investigate fire cause to
determine whether the crime of arson
has occurred
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
AUTHORIZED POSITIONS
ACTIVITY TREE
BUDGET SUMMARY
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