Posts Tagged Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling

Carpentersville Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Grant funding has allowed Carpentersville firefighters to acquire new air packs and masks.

More than a year ago, the Carpentersville Fire Department learned it had secured funding through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA Assistance to Firefighters grant program to replace their old breathing apparatus, which were set to be retired next year.

Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling said at the village board meeting Tuesday that funding had been received. A total of $262,300, which included the village’s required 10 percent match, was used to purchase 36 new air packs as well as masks that contain a built-in thermal imaging camera.  

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Carpentersville Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

The Carpentersville Fire Department is closer to having its first comprehensive strategic plan in place.

The process came as a result of the 100 Day Plan Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling was tasked with when he took the helm of the fire department last June. The initiative’s overall objectives, established through the collaborative efforts of village administration, battalion chiefs, and executive board members of the fire department’s full and part time unions, included improving and/or increasing communication, improving training, safety, and risk management, and increasing personnel collaboration through the creation of various committees.

Strategic planning is not about just producing a document, he said.

“The process is for us more of an improvement of our culture in the fire department. The strategic plan is a vision of our future. It’s a mindset for our personnel to continue to move forward,” Schilling said. “It’s a cycle that should never end and one that continually seeks ways of improvement to do better for our department and our community.”

One goal of the department is to establish a comprehensive community risk reduction program through public education, fire prevention and life safety services, communications, and comprehensive emergency medical services. As the strategic planning process moves forward, so too will the momentum for continuing to improve the culture of the fire department, Schilling said.

“It’s a process going from a rule-based department to one that’s focused on values,” he said. “The rule-based organization sets the standards with rules. And rules incidentally focus on the minimum acceptable behavior for an organization. The minimum. We want to focus on what their values are and establish those values as the department’s values so when they go out they perform at a higher level with a higher value.”

To facilitate that, an anonymous values audit is currently being conducted throughout the department.

“These members write their top 10 values. They take those top 10 values and as a shift they put them together and they come up with a top 10 shift values. Then the three shifts are going to come together and we’re going to create the top 10 values of the department based off of everybody’s input,” he said.

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Carpentersville Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

For the second time in less than six months, Carpentersville firefighter-paramedics have been able to save a life with the aid of an automatic CPR device.

Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling told village trustees at a recent meeting that firefighters responded to a person whose cardiac monitor rhythm had flatlined. With the use of the Lucas Chest Compression System, which provides uninterrupted chest compressions in cases of sudden cardiac arrest, the patient was revived.

 The device frees up first-responders firefighters to do other critical life-saving tasks, such as ventilation, drug therapy and defibrillation.

“If you have to move a patient, it still does CPR. In the past, before having this, when you moved the patient, there was a pause in CPR because it’s difficult for somebody to compress a chest when you can’t put an arm behind them,” Schilling said. “But this machine wraps around the torso and continually does compressions.”

The device, which cost about $14,000, was paid for by the village.

Emergency responders Firefighters were field-testing the device in July when they were able to use it to revive a woman in cardiac arrest.

“We try to save lives every day, but sometimes the patient is not physically revivable, whether it’s due to poor condition of their heart or they don’t respond well to the drugs or compressions with the machines,” Schilling said. “But there are patients where, if we can get to them quick enough and they’re in good physiological shape, we can make a difference. This case proves it.”

thanks Dan

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