Fire Department works to improve rating

Monday saw the delivery of the Ritzville Fire Department’s latest step to improve its current fire service rating by the Washington State Survey and Rating Bureau.

It is a used fire engine and ladder to bring the responding pump trucks up to the required number of three. It will also give the fire department the ability to reach fires in elevated structures.

The new fire engine is just one of many steps that Fire Chief Jim Bostic and his crew have taken to ensure the citizens and businesses of Ritzville will not experience an increase to their insurance because of the change in rating.

In April, the department received a rating of 1556 out of 1950 points. The goal of the rating is to have the lowest number possible, and this score rated the fire department as around 25 percent efficient.

To correct this, Bostic along with Assistant Chief Dennis Sackmann and Captain Bill Banner developed a plan, which was approved by the Ritzville City Council, to begin to rectify the areas the department was most deficient in.

The easiest problem to address was the requirement by the state to have three fire trucks in the city fire department.

“We probably gained about 150 to 175 points for not having the three trucks,” Bostic said.

He said that if the communities of Lind or Sprague were closer it would not have been an issue because of the mutual assistance agreement between these cities. The state requires communities be no further than 13 miles apart in order for each department to count on support from the adjacent fire department.

Bostic knew the city could not afford to buy another new vehicle because of the recently paid off bond, which had been levied to purchase the last truck, and began to search for a reasonably priced, used truck.

His search resulted in finding a truck with a 55-foot ladder in Hazelwood, Missouri. Hazelwood purchased the truck in 1997. Despite its age, the truck has only 6,000 miles and is perfectly suited for Ritzville.

During the service of the truck in Hazelwood, metal shavings were found in the transmission fluid. This resulted in the truck having its transmission replaced at no cost to Ritzville.

With the delivery of the new truck, Ritzville City firemen have been working on preparing the truck for active service and will begin training to operate it as soon as possible.

The next area the fire department faced deficiencies in was equipment. Bostic explained fire hoses are only allowed to be in use for 10 years. The deficiency rating led to multiple hoses being replaced.

“We can’t actually use it to fight fires with,” Bostic said, “it might still pass a test but it’s still out of date.”

Bostic was also able to replace all of the air tanks for the SCBA’s used by the fire department with help from BNSF.

Bostic also said a part of the equipment solution was to mount all of the equipment carried on the fire truck instead of just placing it into compartments. This allows each item its own location to ensure each truck has all of the equipment required.

In addition to the equipment and truck issues, the fire department was evaluated on its community outreach programs and conducting of fire safety inspections in the city.

The city has never had a fire inspection program implemented so Bostic and his crew developed one. During the survey the fire department gained 400 points for not having an inspection program. They started by inspecting all of the city buildings.

He plans to then inspect four or five commercial buildings each month and that way each building will be able to be inspected on a yearly basis. Bostic said the inspections are a voluntary educational program for businesses.

“It’s not enforceable,” Bostic said, “In other words I can’t fine you.”

The inspections are meant to help business owners identify any problems they may have and educate them on how to remedy the issues.

The final category evaluated was community outreach. To increase the fire department’s engagement with the community the department has been conducting fire safety education with the senior center, the school and the area Boy Scouts. Bostic also plans on attending business safety meetings to provide information on fire safety.

Once the fire department attains its level six rating again, Bostic plans to keep it by implementing a program that will allow the fire department to update equipment each year to stay in compliance. This means an increase in the budget.

“The fire department had not really had a budget increase in probably about 15 years,” said Bostic.

The previous budget for the fire department was $26,000, Bostic said, and his new budget increased by about 10 percent.

“Most of it was for equipment and personnel,” Bostic said.

Despite the increase to the budget this year Bostic did not anticipate a regular increase each year once equipment was up to date. The fire department would be able to maintain a cycle of replacement rather than replacing everything at once.

The fire department has until Feb. 1, 2015 to remedy the deficiencies. Bostic plans to request a reevaluation in January.

“We only need to lose roughly off the entire score sheet roughly 200 to 250 points,” Bostic said.

Bostic is confident when the reevaluation occurs, the city fire department will be able to maintain its level six rating.

A rating of seven would mean an increase in personal insurance rates of up to 10 percent and up to 25 percent for businesses. Bostic based this on other areas where the fire departments dropped from a level six rating to a level seven rating.