By Nyle Zikmund
On September 13, 2006, the Spring Lake Park-Blaine-Mounds View (MN) Fire Department (SBM) dedicated its $7.1 million, 34,000-square-foot fire station with state-of-the-art training and prevention facilities. This vision that began almost seven years ago came to fruition as a result of numerous factors, the most important of which were the strong relationships among the department, the city council, and the citizens we serve and protect.
SBM has evolved since its founding in 1944 as a nonprofit fire corporation. It now has 63 emergency response personnel. Nine are full time; the remainder are volunteers. We protect 78,000 residents over a 44-square-mile area that includes a reliever airport and several major businesses. Our annual operating budget is $1.6 million.
Growth in the fire district over the past five years has been explosive; new home construction in Blaine has averaged more than 1,000 homes a year.
LONG-RANGE PLANNING
Our vision began when we developed a long-range plan that anticipated that Blaine would most likely experience explosive growth, since it had large, open land tracts. The plan’s constants included maintaining a cost-efficient volunteer operation as long as possible, providing a complete array of professional services, and combining quality training with quality people to maximize our operation’s efficiency and safety.
We believed we could achieve our goal by using the smallest complement of highly trained individuals, volunteer and career, with a strong focus and commitment on the volunteer operation. A major component was a strong prevention program. SBM has two full-time educators, one permanent part-time educator, and four paid-on-call volunteer educators.
Additionally, the fire marshaling and inspection services are housed within each city and work among the three cities; seven fire marshal/inspectors focus directly on working with building owners to ensure compliance with model codes.
Finally, the foundation of any fire prevention program is determining fire cause and prosecuting arson. SBM has its own internal investigation team, which is comprised completely of volunteers and includes a sworn police officer from each of the three cities.
Despite the enormous growth of the fire district, our call volume has remained constant. In fact, alarms were the only category to increase; all other categories-structure fires, wildland fires, car fires, and crash rescue calls-all declined slightly. Ten years ago, our annual call volume was 1,109; in 2005, it was 1,097. By maintaining this volume despite growth, we successfully managed our budget primarily through personnel costs. We have proven prevention can and does work.
The plan’s other major component was an investment in a facility that would take us to the next level in training and prevention. The idea of a “super station” was bandied about early on when the plans were first unveiled. We were closing or consolidating two older, landlocked stations, which was related to increasing efficiency. Over time, we would transition to one less first-line pumper and accompanying crew.
INTERAGENCY PARTNERSHIPS
We also began forming partnerships, primarily with our respective police departments and emergency management directors, all of whom are members of the police department. For years, SBM has worked on simultaneously building relationships from the top down and bottom up by doing the following.
- We opened our workout rooms to all police and municipal personnel, installing keyless entry locks so police personnel can use our facility 24/7/365.
- Fire department command staff attends the Blaine Police Department weekly staff meeting; Blaine comprises 75 percent of our response area.
- We formed a joint police/fire chaplain program in 2002, which has brought all in closer contact with each other.
- The fire and police departments programmed each other’s frequencies into their respective radios so each agency can talk directly at emergency scenes.
As we moved forward with our vision of the new facility, we worked closely with the police, especially the Blaine Police Department, on several design features.
The training room seats 100 and is equipped with dual large-screen back-projection projectors, all with technology that enables instructors to write on the screen using an electronic pen (photo 1).
 1. Photos by author. |
The room is also designed as a backup emergency operations center. It features 12 outlet boxes that include electrical power connected to a backup generator, network data, TV, high-speed Internet, phone, and radio communication lines. The outlets are scattered strategically around the room; each allows four to six tables to be positioned around it to create an EOC sector. Numerous multipurpose work stations are built into cabinetry on the perimeter of the room.
The training room also serves as a primary fire prevention and life safety education center for students and civic groups, which use the audiovisual equipment and built-in cabinet stations (photo 2).
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The simulation room features state-of-the-art driving and incident command/emergency management simulators. The multipurpose driving simulator (a $165,000 investment) includes two easily removable consoles (one for a fire truck and one for a sedan, including the seat, steering wheel, and dash). The software can be programmed for 35 vehicles; factory specifications are installed so braking, acceleration, and turning are all in real time. Students drive through an 18-mile course that traverses urban, rural, and suburban environments into which the instructor can program and control an infinite number of variables (photos 3, 4).
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The second console (which cost $35,000 of the $165,000) allows the simulator to be used to train police, fire, and snowplow drivers on the same equipment. The equipment is so effective and efficient that it will be made available to other public safety agencies for modest fees.
The emergency management/incident command simulator features software and the hardware to run it. The software can be run on the Web or off a server. To expand an incident, we just have to provide a computer for each student. You can build a scenario with 50 or 100 different sectors, agencies, or functions.
The software enables the instructors to employ digital photography, imagination, and their skills and experience to develop any scenario imaginable. Instructors build a scenario by taking pictures of buildings or geographic areas and inserting them into the software. Surprisingly realistic smoke and flame can also be programmed on a timeline based on scientific studies of fire growth to react similar to real life. Each student who logs in sees a display of what that person would see on reaching the assignment (photo 5).
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The simulator rooms are adjacent to an instructor room positioned between the two rooms and have glass windows for viewing students. The student receives a page while out in the hall and enters the driving simulator. On successful navigation to the scene, the student exits the driving simulator, at which time he is confronted with the emergency situation on the incident command display screen.
The workout facility is accessible through a separate entrance for the police and all municipal workers. Additionally, we constructed a small office/lounge area adjacent to the workout room and accessible through the entrance. This area includes an eating area with microwave and refrigerator, a place to watch TV, a workout room with showers, and a report writing area with access to a computer and telephone.
The practical training center consists of a large concrete and steel room with one flight of stairs, two removable windows with concrete sills, and concrete parapets on the roof. All of this can be sealed so it can be filled with smoke. The fire department will be able to connect the hydrant, supply a built-in standpipe, advance hoselines up the stairs, fill the room with smoke, practice search and rescue, hone thermal imaging camera skills, and perform elevated rescue through the windows. Police will be able to practice similar search functions, fire dummy ammunition, and close-quarter confrontation tactics (photos 6, 7).
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Two conference rooms that can accommodate 12 to 16 persons include state-of-the-art audiovisual features and are linked to the main training and simulation rooms. Since the conference rooms are near these rooms, they can also be used for prevention events, emergency management operations, and meetings.
Four large offices include two smaller four- to six-person conference areas, which allow further options when working with various size groups.
STAFFING
Like many suburban departments across the United States, we struggle with recruiting and retaining daytime available volunteers. As few as 10 years ago, we had 36 volunteers during the day; today we have five. As part of our long-range plan, we developed a three-part strategy for dealing with this issue. Although each component is separate, they all work together to ensure adequate staffing.
The three components were building the new station with offices and features designed for increased training and hiring two firefighter/training officers; building relationships with the three cities specific to cross-training full-time city employees as firefighters; and increasing our efforts and financial incentives for volunteers.
Our first full-time training officer was hired in 2005; the second joined in January 2007. We have gone from three city responders to 14. Although we have had greater success in recruiting daytime volunteers, we continue to struggle with retention.
Complementing the two full-time training officers are an operations officer and a permanent part-time chief of training. Additionally, as SBM chief, I hold a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and teach at the state and national level.
TRAINING GOAL
It will take us a good six months, to mid-2007, to debug the new station, complete the vendor-supplied training on the two simulators, and start building our own scenarios. Simultaneously, we will begin developing and refining our long-range training plan.
We foresee the two training officers alternating responsibility for our weekly (day and night session) drills every quarter. Although they will not be the lead persons that quarter, both, in addition to the operations officer, will have to be present at all hands-on or practical drills. This gives us three dedicated instructors at every practical drill session.
Additionally, each training officer will be assigned as the lead on the driving or incident command simulator and will be responsible for maintaining the equipment, training, scheduling, and developing scenarios.
Finally, each officer will be in charge of driver/pumper training or new recruit training and will deliver this training during their “off” quarter. This ensures we conduct an apparatus operation course-and, if needed, a new recruit course-twice a year.
Every two years, the training officers will switch responsibilities, to build depth and expertise in all facets of training.
Also, the chief of training and the chief will be working on building an advanced management/leadership/officer course based on National Fire Protection Association standards for officer III and IV.
We contacted several higher education institutions and the Minnesota Fire Certification Board, which administers tests relative to accreditation. The program would include classroom, simulator time, national speakers, and custom training.
Our large training room offers adequate space for bringing in national speakers, which will allow us to include other public safety agencies in the event, helping to defray our costs. This arrangement will give us more contact and interaction with the police, who are also invited and send a number of people as well.
LESSONS LEARNED
Although we have not taken the next step as described above, we have positioned ourselves to take it based on lessons learned in the past, which include but are not limited to those below.
Partnerships. We are very proud of the facility and equipment in it. However, the most persuasive arguments for policymakers were the multiagency approach and economical savings that accompanied it.
Research. Regarding the simulation equipment, we queried our colleagues and used the Internet to explore what was available. Four of us then attended the Fire Department Instructors Conference with a very narrow focus and split up to explore the vendor area. After we did an overview of the area, we focused on the top two products in each category and spent considerable time. We traveled to Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas to meet with the products’ end users, used the products in fire department settings, and participated in a class. Finally, we went to the manufacturing plant and received the expected tour and sales program, but we also spent time with the designers and engineers. This research included the audiovisual component.
Environment. Learning is a difficult task in itself, especially without the proper environment. Our environment included numerous rooms of various sizes and configurations. We learned from talking with others, especially the end users, the importance of temperature and lighting controls. As a result, we approved more than $15,000 in change orders to the simulator rooms and, to a lesser degree, the main training room for additional lighting options and upgraded temperature controls. The driving simulator generates some heat but also provides so intense an experience that it causes most students to suffer some motion sickness. This can be alleviated by keeping the room cooler, between 66°F and 68°F.
Staffing. Our plan will not work without adequate staffing. Good or bad, the difficulty in getting daytime volunteers has led us to career personnel. However, we resisted the traditional career firefighter in exchange for an administratively skilled individual who is also a firefighter. We learned from our transition to a major records management software program back in 2002 that you need dedicated individuals to oversee and operate specialized programs and equipment. We are fortunate enough to have a department large enough to justify those resources.
Over the next two years, we hope to finish our vision with respect to the training we plan on developing and delivering. We are confident that we so far have assembled the proper pieces to position us well to succeed at our goal.
Nyle Zikmund is a 25-year veteran of the fire service and has been chief of the Spring Lake Park-Blaine-Mounds View (MN) Fire Department since 1995. He is an adjunct instructor for the National Fire Academy (NFA) and has bachelor’s degrees in secondary education and fire science and technology and a master’s degree in public administration. Zikmund is a graduate of the NFA’s Executive Fire Officer program and a Commission on Fire Service Accreditation-certified chief fire officer.
