Augusta County Fire-Rescue System Plan sketches path better volunteer training
VERONA – “We traveled this county for about two and a half days, saw all of it,” said Joe Pozzo. “I was in places that didn't have cell service.”
Pozzo is the senior manager for fire and emergency medical services (EMS) of the International City/County Management Association. His team met with Augusta County fire and rescue volunteers and staff from every station, the Board of Supervisors, and conferenced with the Augusta County Emergency Services Officers Association to gather opinions on what the system needs.
The result is the Augusta County Fire and Rescue Plan, a 41-page document given recommendations for how to manage the system as the county’s population continues to grow. Pozzo explained the plan to the Augusta County Board of Supervisors on April 10.
No attempt to end volunteer departments
The Augusta County Fire and Rescue system appears to be culturally split between career staff and volunteers. Pozzo addressed the dynamic head on in the presentation.
“In a few meetings that we were in, we were told that this study is nothing more than to create a career fire department – that is not the case,” Pozzo said. “That's not our bias. We approach this using all of the data that we collected, all the community risk assessment information we collected, and all of the stakeholder input and that's how we arrived at these key findings.”
Instead, the plan hopes to mend the gaps between the volunteers and career staff. Volunteers make up a majority of the fire and rescue system in Augusta County – there are 596 volunteers, with 238 active call runners and the rest serving in administrative or fund-raising roles. On the career side, there are 125 staff members, including the Fire Chief, senior operational staff officers, operational field officers, training specialists, and fire and EMS practitioners.
Pozzo complimented what he saw of the entire system: “I wasn't anywhere where there wasn't any pride. Equipment's clean. The officers that we met with and the members we met with were very prepared. They had a lot of input. They're proud of what they did. do. They're proud to serve this community.”
What is expected to change soon?
In recent budget negotiations, the Augusta County Board of Supervisors dedicated $1 million to new staffing positions throughout the fire and rescue system. The additions were based on recommendations from the fire and rescue plan.
The new staff includes:
Three fire fighters for Weyers Cave Volunteer Fire Company. The additional personnel will keep the volunteer company staffed during the day on Monday through Friday.
Eight Emergency Medical Services personnel in Churchville. The report suggested making the Churchville Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue squad a hub station with 24/7 staffing.
Three Emergency Medical Services personnel in Stuarts Draft. Similar to Weyers Cave, the new personnel will keep the station open during the day on weekdays.
One of the divides between career staff and volunteers is training. According to Pozzo, many of the volunteers want to take a basic Firefighter I class that has not been available. The county’s proposed staff increases could address this - The final two new positions are a fire training specialist and an EMS training specialist for the entire system to use.
“Create a unified system-wide volunteer orientation and onboarding program that is scheduled on the same recurring evening on a monthly basis,” reads one of dozens of goals in the plan.
Response times for some stations are as high as 90 minutes
Pozzo and his team added raw data on top – reviewed where every station is located, how timely the call responses are, where resources are allocated, what kind of equipment each station has, mutual aid agreements, and environmental risk.
The study looked at the 14,269 fire and EMS calls placed in Augusta County over about a year, and how far each was from the dispatching station.
“EMS transport times, total from the time of the call dispatch until that unit gets back into that service area, are quite long,” Pozzo said. “Nine of your EMS stations are right at or over 90 minutes. You have three or four that are well over 100 minutes, and you have one that's about 155 minutes on average.”
One of the plan’s objectives is to maintain the “current 6-minute turnout time for system emergency response resources.” Pozzo noted the response times are complicated by several issues – many calls come from remote locations in the county and volunteer staff are typically responding from home or work. Despite the barriers, Pozzo recommended working to get the time further down.
“That creates EMS resiliency issues,” Pozzo continued. “When that unit is gone and out of that district, if there's a second call in that district, then the travel time or response time just to get the unit on the scene is going to be longer and take more time.”
Augusta does not have a fire marshal and Shull doesn’t want one
“We talked about fire prevention and your lack thereof – it’s okay," Pozzo told the supervisors. "You just don’t have a program in place. Our objectives are, first, get a fire marshal. Somebody who's certifying fire prevention, fire investigation. Get a fire marshal to come in, give you a plan. Here are all your inspectable properties.”
Pozzo emphasized why the fire marshal, and likely an inspector or two, would be important.
“There's some pretty high-level things you have in this county," Pozzo said. "Got a hospital, you got medical facilities, you certainly have daycare centers, you've got nursing homes. You've got all of that. You got every bit of that. Vulnerable population. You have your share of vulnerable population. You want to be sure that they're protected.”
Supervisor Micheal Shull disagreed with the proposed fire marshal. He asked how many localities have a fire marshal, but Pozzo was not able to give a specific number. As to inspections, Shull disagreed the sole responsibility of fire safety inspections fell on the county.
“I have a feeling that most any industry that's in this county that has insurance involved has somebody to come in and look at that,” said Shull. “I'm not so sure that we need to move forward with that yet.”
Shull also noted the Virginia State Police routinely investigate fire incidents. Rather than pay for a county fire marshal to do so, he expressed he’d rather continue with that system, letting the state pay for fire-related investigations.
What are the recommendations?
The goals, not including those mentioned elsewhere in this article, include:
Improve recruitment and retention of both volunteers and career staff.
Improving marketing, branding, and community outreach
Develop a health, safety, and wellness committee, to include the Augusta County Human Resources Department, with a goal of developing a comprehensive health, safety, and wellness initiative program.
Reclassify response times over the six-minute goal, labeling the responses delayed rather than failures.
The construction and staffing of a new fire station along Route 340 in Crimora is listed as a long term goal.
Provide annual Advanced EMT certification course to boost and maintain the availability of advanced life support field personnel, and to ensure Augusta County staffed ambulances have a minimum of one ALS provider.
Develop a funding solution for volunteer company Fire and EMS apparatus replacement beyond the major revolving apparatus loan fund to sustain Augusta County system response.
Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It’s welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Augusta County Fire-Rescue System Plan sketches path better volunteer training
