Preparing for the worst Delivering the best. Mission Statement

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1 A P U B L I C A T I O N B Y A N D F O R T H E S T A F F O F T H E C I T Y O F D E L R A Y B E A C H F I R E - R E S C U E D E P A R T M E N T Volume 10, Issue 11 City of Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department April 2011 Mission Statement The Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department is resolved to provide the highest quality of emergency services to residents and visitors of o u r c o m m u n i t y ; effectively mitigating all types of incidents threatening life or property; educating the public in specific aspects of health and safety to assure a superior quality of life. Congratulations to Steven Anderson on his promotion and his new position as Division Chief EMS. We wish him much success. Vision Statement Our vision is to provide Fire-Rescue, Emergency Medical and Special Operations Services at the highest level of e x c e l l e n c e, professionalism, and commitment to the community. Proud of our past and embracing our future, the members of Delray Beach Fire-Rescue will work as an effective and integrated team, dedicated to continuous improvement and maintaining a positive environment. The Department will be a model to others and the pride of the community. Dr. Graig Kushnir and Steven Anderson, Division Chief EMS Steven Anderson, Division Chief with his father at the pinning ceremony Preparing for the worst Delivering the best

2 Page 2 Chief John Tomaszewski s Farewell Gathering Celebrating his 29 plus years of service at the City of Delray Beach Congratulations

3 Page 3 S.O.G. Monthly Mike Twigger, Asst. Chief Administration A part of this job is to give witness testimony in regards to responses. Please take time to review the department s guideline ( Subpoenas and Depositions S.O.G. located in Volume I, Chapter 2, Section 16) for when you are notified to pick up a subpoena. City Administrative Policy GA 32 found on also provides direction for employees when receiving subpoenas.

4 Page 4 Update Danielle Connor, Assistant Chief A special thank you to everyone that came out to participate in the City s annual Curb Appeal event on Saturday March 26 th. The Fire-Rescue Department had great representation this year and worked collaboratively with a group of debutantes from the Frances J. Bright Women s Club and DBFR Explorers Post #320 to paint and completely overhaul the front yard landscaping at 137 NW 11 Avenue. The house looks great and the resident was overwhelmed by everyone s efforts and the end result. Drive by if you get a chance. Special thanks to: Assistant Chief Russ Accardi, Acting Assistant Chief Mike Twigger, Division Chief Victor Williams, Lt. Sean Gibson, DE Jerome Weatherspoon, PM Andy Close, PM Ken Hansley, PM Almando Newland, PM Monier Levy, PM Dan Waldrep, PM Craig Mahoney, and Administrative Assistant Shakeema Gaskin. Great job!!! At long last, we have gone live with our new Firehouse software and dispatch system. These projects were first begun almost two years ago, and a core group of individuals have been involved since its inception. A tremendous amount of time and commitment has been invested by Battalion Chief Greg Giaccone, Lt. Ed Beardsley, Lt. Joe Falcone, PM Jim Bradford, and PM Brian Pollack. This is the first significant records management software (RMS) that the department has had and will allow us to now track equipment inventory, training hours, hydrants, and personnel information. Also, our emergency responses will be enhanced by the incorporation of inspections information, mapping, and QAS data that should allow us to do our jobs smarter and safer. Any project of this magnitude is expected to have some minor glitches. Please be patient while we work through these glitches! The folks above are literally working around the clock to minimize down time and expedite some of the patches. We ll get there Senior Staff met over the course of the past month and updated all of the job descriptions for the Fire-Rescue Department. These will now be submitted to Human Resources for their final approval. We attempted to not only upgrade each position and rank, but to consolidate the various positions whenever possible. Under Division Chief, for example, you will find generic position requirements first, then more specific requirements for each of our three Division Chiefs: EMS, Training, and Fire Safety. This same format was used for the Assistant Chief and Lieutenant positions. Stay tuned next month for a link to the new job descriptions. Finally, thank you to each of you for everything you do every single day to represent this department. Your continued delivery of exceptional service is noticed and appreciated every day. Keep it up!!! The seven newest members of DBFR have been with us for a year. Now that it looks like they will be sticking with us for a while, it is time to get to know them a little better. Each month will feature a short bio on who they are and how they got here. This month s Member is: Paramedic James Jacobs. He probably looked familiar to us all when he started since he was already working for the city Police Department. Prior to working as a police officer James was in the U.S. Air Force working on F-15 s. He was sent to Saudi Arabia as well as spending time in Texas and Virginia. James decided to switch to the fire side of public safety because of the different context of connection with the public. James is still in paramedic school which is taking up most of his free time. He has been married to Alexandra for 4 years and is from Greenacres originally. After seeing a motorcycle driven by one of his coworkers James has become interested in Harley Davidson s. He also is an avid in-line skater, spending much of his time skating on A1A on his days off. Welcome to the Delray Beach Fire-Rescue James!

5 April 5 th City Commission meeting. Delray Citizens for Delray Police check presentation Page 5 EMS team Recognized by City Commission Advanced Life Support Team Competition Champion National Invitational Fire-Rescue EAST Daytona Beach Congratulations to Joey Cafone, Rick Tarantino, Jimmy Bradford & David Garcia

6 Page 6 New OSSI CAD and Other Operations Changes Russell Accardi, Assistant Chief of Operations As many of you know with the implementation of the new OSSI Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, the Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department has made significant changes to how we provide emergency services. One of the changes involved an analysis of the current station boundaries which resulted in making adjustments to the primary zones as well as the 2 nd, 3 rd 4 th, due units. In order to develop our Geo-Proximity Map for the CAD, the Operations Division applied the response travel time formula developed by the Rand Corporation and recognized by the Insurance Services Office (ISO) to each zone. This change will allow a more even distribution of calls for service in some zones and should decrease response times to certain areas in our coverage area. As we move forward using the new CAD system we will evaluate how these changes are working to see if any further adjustments may be warranted. In order to move toward being in line with the Florida Field Operating Guide (FOG) regarding resource typing we have changed what we call our emergency apparatus. We have also changed our radio call designations to be in compliance with the National Incident Management System (NIMS). A few examples of Radio designation changes: Battalion One replaces 120 EMS One replaces 160 Tender One replaces Tanker One Squirt One replaces Quint One Medic Unit replaces Rescue Unit The officer on Engine 2 will answer as Engine 2 replacing 122. The driver will be Engine 2 driver etc. The other significant change was in the department s emergency response plan for handling calls for service. The number of apparatus being sent to specific calls has been adjusted in this new response plan. For example; A high rise fire no longer gets the same number of emergency vehicles as a single family house fire. We will get on the initial alarm 3 engines, 1 ladder truck, 1 special operations vehicle, 2 medic units the EMS Supervisor and the Battalion Chief. In other instances we have a reduced response such as wires arcing, elevator emergency, or fire out/investigation will be only 1 engine and no medic unit initially. As with other changes that have been made, the Operations Division will see how these changes work in our ability to deliver services and will consider re-evaluating areas that may need to be addressed in the future. For now we ask for everyone to be patient and allow the communications personnel and ourselves to become acclimated to these changes while we are all transitioning to this new system.

7 The Pension Corner By Lt. Joe Liguori Page 7 I am frequently asked by new entrants into the DROP for advice on where to allocate their money. I am not a financial advisor but I am always willing to share my personal experiences regarding my investments. Only you know what s best for you and your family. There are many considerations in making your allocation decision. For Instance: *How old are you going to be when you actually retire? *How old will your spouse and/or children be? *Your financial standing: debt vs. wealth accumulation. * Must I depend on my DROP money for income? *What level of risk am I willing to take? I can relate to you some facts regarding the funds available for your DROP: *All of the available funds have positive returns in the last year. *Nearly all have rebounded into positive returns on a 5 yr. basis. *Equities are far out-pacing bonds in the last year. Below, I will table the current funds available and their returns for 1 year and 5 years. This table will show that over the long term, if you stayed the course and didn t try to time the market, you will still have a positive return. Moreover, if you had/have a nice balanced mixture of different asset classes, your will have received substantial excess returns above the index. In general, it is prudent to keep your risk in the moderate range, but you can receive additional gains by adding some aggressive, riskier funds. Conservative 1 yr. % return 5 yr. % return Plus Fund TIPS Moderate Balanced Savings Balanced Conservative Balanced Growth US Index International Index Aggressive VT SMID T. Rowe Small Cap Nuveen Real Estate Equity Income Fidelity Contra International Equity Emerging Markets If you have any suggestions for additional asset classes to be included in the DROP portfolio, please forward them to myself or Greg or Justin. A reminder: we are one of the very few plans that allow DROP participants to keep their accounts active without the requirement for a mandatory rollover upon termination. You will pay a very small management fee for this privilege.

8 Page 8 Congratulations Mike & Shannon Boyd on the birth of their daughter Rylee Morgan 3/24/2011 8lb 3oz Lt. Mark Dagnan with his son Chase Gloria Marsh with her daughter Rhonda and grand-daughters Zenani, Zindizi, Zannah, and Sarah Just Married 04/2/2011 Eric & Paige Tilghman Roxanne Tilghman with her husband Jim and son Eric

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10 Page 10 The Curb Appeal event took place on 3/26/11, at 137 NW 11 Ave. Thank you to all who participated. Great Job! Danielle Connor, Russ Accardi, Victor Williams, Mike Twigger, Andy Close, Sean Gibson, Kenny Hansley, Dan Waldrep, Jerome Weatherspoon, Craig Mahoney, Shakeema Gaskin, Monier Levy, Almando Newland, Explorers Alex Sanchez, Britanny Carrillo & Brendan Brentano Page 10

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12 Fitness Joe Falcone, EMS Training EMS Training and Fitness News Well the EMS Training division has been busy with the implementation of our new reporting system and our new software is up and running. Training on the software has been ongoing and will continue until every member is fully capable of operating the system. Please do not hesitate to contact the training division and we will be glad to provide individual assistance for those having problems. As a whole I believe we did a great job grasping the system in the short time it has been live and foresee this going very smoothly as everyone gets used to operating the software. Thank you for your cooperation during this transition. May Training Schedule Week 1 ACLS Week 2 UL Testing Week 3 Dive Rescue Week 4 Company Level Fitness News Page 12 The Delray Beach Firefighters once again participated in the Palm 100 relay race which is a 6 member team who takes turns running from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach and back. The team consisted of Lt. C. Mockenhaupt, Lt. Beardsley, Lt. Jepsen, PM R. Bahe, PM Lasko and Christy Wise. I also participated in the 100 Kilometer (62 miles) individual race which ran from Ft. Lauderdale to Boynton Beach Inlet and back. This our third year participating and we look forward to another team next year to keep the tradition. The Team finished in 15 hours and 55 minutes and I finished in 13 hours and 59 minutes which netted a first place age group finish and 8 th overall out of about 30 people. Great job to those who competed! Next challenge is the Spartan Race on April 23 rd down in Oleta Park in North Miami. The race is a challenging 8 mile obstacle/run course. Results will be posted next month. March 2011 "A" Shift "B" Shift "C'" Shift Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Total 950 Total 948 Total 979

13 Page 13 Explorer Post 320 Lt. Sean Gibson The Explorers have been very busy this past two months with training for the 11 th Annual Explorer Challenge that was held this past April 3 rd at the Coral Springs Fire Academy. The Post had put in a lot of extra hours preparing for the competition. They trained at Station 1 doing hose evolutions, trauma evolutions, CPR, and ladder raises. A direct result of all of this training was placing third in the BLS/ CPR scenario and getting much better times this year than last year in practically all of the events. We even learned a new event for this year called the Pittsburgh Drill. This entailed a team of four Explorers following a fifty foot section of 2 ½ hose through a breached wall section then over an A-frame obstacle and finally through a six foot long 24 section of tube. This was followed by the team having to extract a victim (100 lb. dummy) out of the course in the reverse order. This event simulates a RIT crew working through obstacles to get a victim out of harm s way. The pinnacle event of the competition came at the end of the day. Lt. John Schmidt of Broward Sherriff s Office introduced a new event called the Runaway Hose event. He had seen the evolution at a Firematics in Ft. Myers last year and was dying to see how it would be received by the kids on the east coast. A section of 2 ½ hose that had the male coupling removed was connected to a hydrant with tape wrapped around the hose approximately one foot from the end. The goal was to place a hose clamp between the end and the tape marker and control the hose during the whole event.. Delray s team of Brendan Brentano and Jeff Dorgilus closed the deal at 1:38.39 and the crowd went wild. The two advisors, PM JT Kavanaugh and Lt. Sean Gibson, even got in on the act with a lot of persuasion from all of the Explorers. Their time of 48 seconds was bested only by Palm Beach County s advisors by 8 seconds. We had a lot of fun during the day and the members made a lot of new friends. They have even been invited to a bowling event in Margate for an after-event party with other Posts from Broward and Palm Beach County on April 19 th. Many thanks go to the three members who showed up to help at the Curb Appeal Delray event. Explorers Alex Sanchez, Britanny Carrillo, and Brendan Brentano all came bright and early and assisted in the landscaping and painting. The owner of the house, Ms. Smith thanked the Explorers and we promised her a copy of the Hot Topics when it came out to show her our appreciation for letting us help her. The hose was then charged and that s when the fun began. It sounded like an easy event in the beginning, but after the first team attempted it, all of the Explorers had a new appreciation for a broken hose under pressure. Needless to say all of the participants got a little wet and most of the spectators who stood too close were the recipients of a good dousing. After the Explorers were all done, only two teams were able to actually shut off the flow of water in the allotted time of two minutes..

14 Page 14 PALM 100 Congratulations to Lt. Tony Ojea!! Lt Ed Beardsley, PM Jennifer Lasko, Lt Crista Mockenhaupt, Christy Wise (wife of Lt Mike Wise), PM Randy Bahe. Great Job running in the PALM 100. Lt. Curtis Jepsen isn t pictured because he was running the race at the time of the photo.

15 Birthdays April Anniversary Page 15 April 2nd Jay Gunsten Tommie Osborn April 7th Jack McKessy April 8th Matthew Fick April 11th Laura Deckers April 13th William Marino April 17th Joseph LaMarco April 20th Charles Lawson April 22nd Dennis Simpson April 24 Joseph Albano April 27th Edmund Beardsley The distribution of our next newsletter is May 15, All news articles should be turned in to Debra Nastasi, Administrative Assistant in Fire Safety on or before, May 12, Thank you once again for your contributions and we look forward to the next issue of Hot Topics. April 24th Katherine Hoecherl 25yrs. April 16th Edward Crelin 24yrs April 1st Steven Anderson 19yrs. April 13th Roxanne Tilghman 19yrs. April 21st Jennifer Lasko 13 yrs April 23rd Harvey Greenberg 9 yrs April 21st Mary Black 8 yrs April 20th Shakeema Gaskin 2 yr