Posts Tagged Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago

CFD hiring practices in the news … again

Oct 26

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

The Chicago Suntimes has an article about the racial consistency of recent CFD hiring:

The Chicago Fire Department has hired 300 firefighters and 162 paramedics this year to reduce runaway overtime, but the hiring spree didn’t do a thing to bridge the racial divide in a department that has long been lily-white.

Only 33 of the 462 new hires —seven percent — are African-American. The overwhelming majority—338 or 73 percent—are white. The list also includes 81 Hispanics or 17 percent of the pool.

Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said Friday he hopes to reverse that trend on Dec. 13 and 14 when 23,375 applicants in three separate shifts arrive at McCormick Place to take the city’s first firefighters entrance exam in nearly a decade.

After an aggressive outreach, the applicant pool includes a better mix. It’s 44 percent white, 24 percent Hispanic, 22 percent black and 14 percent women.

“We had a team of firefighters, firefighter/EMT’s and paramedics who formed teams and were assigned territories throughout the city of Chicago. They were responsible for distributing information, attending job fairs. They went to events. We had a Facebook page,” said Adrienne Bryant, the Fire Department’s personnel chief.

“We also had billboards. We had ads in all of the community newspapers. We had radio. We also had 15-second ads in the movie theaters over Labor Day weekend. We did all kinds of marketing to let folks know who, what, when and where they could apply. It was a successful event.”

Santiago said he’s pleased with the “robust” recruitment to bolster minority involvement.

African-American aldermen were not appeased. Especially not after hearing some equally lop-sided breakdown for promotions. There were no African-Americans in the latest promotion to lieutenant.

“I’ve been in the City Council for seven years. These numbers look the same. I don’t know how we’re gonna achieve parity in the Fire Department,” said Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd).

Santiago replied, “Our plan has always been to go ahead and create a large, diversified pool, a base. That’s why recruitment is so important to us. In order to get to the top, we have to have large numbers. … When we get these numbers put together, they put together, they work their way to the top.”

Two years ago, Chicago borrowed the $78.4 million needed to compensate nearly 6,000 African-American would-be firefighters bypassed by the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 entrance exam. The borrowing compounded the cost of a settlement that was twice as high as anticipated. The city had already agreed to hire 111 bypassed black firefighters. The cash damages went to about 5,900 others who never got that chance.

Delays in settling that case were blamed, in part, for a hiring slowdown that prompted the Fire Department to wrack up $43 million in overtime spending last year and $28.3 million this year through the end of May alone.

thanks Dan

Tags: Chicago FD sitied for lack of diversity in hiring, Chicago Fire Department, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago

New Chicago FD memorial

Oct 13

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

CBSChicago has an article about a new CFD memorial:

The Chicago Fire Department has dedicated a new memorial wall, honoring the city’s first all-black firehouse.

… Engine Co. 19, located at 3421 S. Calumet Av., was once Fire Company 21, the first African American fire company in the city.

“Engine 19 has an unbelievable history, and then when you go back to Engine 21, 1800s, all-black fire house,” Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said. “Black firefighters, going all the way back to the 1800s, and they had responded to the most busiest fires throughout. It just wasn’t documented right.”

Friday morning, the fire department unveiled a memorial wall at Engine Co. 19, paying tribute to all members of Engine 19, Engine 21, and Truck 11 who have lost their lives in service of the city. Firefighters with Company 21 helped fight the tragic Chicago Union Stock Yards fire in 1910, which killed 21 firefighters.

“Six of them in this house died at the Stock Yards fire,” Santiago said of Engine 21.

The commissioner said the memorial was a long-time coming for the city, and more is planned, including a book about African-Americans who served as Chicago firefighters.

thanks Dan

Tags: Chicago FD memorial for black firefighters, Chicago Union Stock Yards fire, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago

Does Chicago have a shortage of ambulances? (more)

Apr 1

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 38 Comments

Some recent articles about the controversy in Chicago with EMS responses and the availability of ambulances;

This from CBSChicago about a memo to dispatchers:

The CBS 2 Investigators and the Better Government Association have been warning about an apparent shortage of Chicago ambulances and paramedics. The result: dangerous delays for patients needing emergency care.

So far, it seems the city is trying to cover the problem up instead of fixing it. In the meantime, the response times for ambulances are just getting worse.

“Anybody available downtown that can take a run,” a dispatcher’s voice crackles through the scanner speaker.

These are the types of calls paramedics say happen every day. “It’s clear they have no ambulances and it clearly validates what we’ve been saying that they need more ambulances,” said paramedic field chief Pat Fitzmaurice.

But now, city officials apparently don’t want the media or anyone else with a scanner to hear some of those transmissions asking for help. They are asking dispatchers to watch what they say.

CBS 2 and the BGA obtained a copy of a memo written by a supervisor at the Office of Emergency Management. It called shout-outs for any available ambulances: “not an acceptable practice.”

The memo instructs dispatchers to, “Avoid terminology like we have no ALS (advanced life support) ambulances available,”….particularly when they have to send a basic life support ambulance to the scene and a fire engine with a paramedic on board. Basic life support ambulances do not have paramedics and the same equipment as advanced life ambulances.

Dispatchers should use ambulance numbers to instruct staff in the field on what to do in those cases, the memo said, adding, “Hopefully we can get the message across without highlighting the fact that no ALS unit is available.”

The memo also concedes that, “We all realize that certain times we are inundated with runs and lack of resources.”

This is from EMS1.com:

A city-issued memo obtained by CBS Chicago asks dispatchers to watch what they say, calling shout-outs for available ambulances “not an acceptable practice” and instructing dispatchers to “avoid terminology like we have no ALS ambulances available” so as not to highlight the fact. Written by a supervisor at the Office of Emergency Management, the memo also states, “We all realize that certain times we are inundated with runs and lack of resources.”

Better Government Association CEO and President Andy Shaw said the city should be addressing it.

A spokeswoman from Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management said the memo is an “informal internal document” that serves as a reminder to dispatchers to use “approved protocol and professionalism.”

CBS has continued coverage of long response times, including incidents where it took 16 minutes for an ambulance to respond to a woman struck by a postal truck while crossing the street, 22 minutes for an elderly patient complaining of chest pains, and 26 minutes for an ALS response to the home of an elderly woman having trouble breathing.

A spokesman for the Fire Department said the 26-minute response time was “unacceptable” and the incident is under investigation. In a written statement, the Fire Department said it is conducting a review of its ambulances to ensure deployment meet the needs of Chicago.

Also from EMS1.com:

The head of most EMS operations is the communication center. The responsibility is huge. It is the first point of contact for the community when reporting medical emergencies.

[Dispatchers] coordinate the system’s resources, trying to match the appropriate unit to the appropriate incident. Dispatchers use various forms of technology to help make those decisions: software, GPS, dispatch algorithms, among others. The system has to be able to send the appropriate resources at the right time to avoid going to a zero-level condition. Sometimes that’s unavoidable, but regulating the system to minimize a zero-level condition can help reduce the possibility.

How does Chicago keep track of their resources? It seems a little strange that a dispatcher doesn’t know where the units are at any given time. While Chicago is a big system, other similarly sized systems seem to be able to tell which ambulance should go where at any point in time. Is this a sign of a larger issue? If there are ways to increase the effectiveness of system operations, throwing more ambulances at the problem isn’t necessarily the fix.

Tags: ambulance response times, ambulance shortage in Chicago, Better Government Association, Chicago Fire Department, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, National Fire Protection Association, Office of Emergency Management, Pam Zekman, Paramedic Field Chief Patrick Fitzmaurice

Does Chicago have a shortage of ambulances?

Feb 9

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | 15 Comments

Pam Zekman from CBSChicago did a piece the other night on the state of the Chicago FD ambulance fleet and EMS responses:

If you have a life-threatening condition will the city get an ambulance to you in time?

CBS 2?s Pam Zekman and the Better Government Association investigated and found they may not. That’s why paramedics say the city needs more paramedics and ambulances.

Take the case of Lynn Ramos. She was crossing Washington Street in the Loop last month when she was struck by a 2-ton postal truck. Fire engines with a paramedic on board arrived in about four minutes to extricate her from under a wheel of the truck. In recorded calls, one of them can be heard asking a city dispatcher why an ambulance hasn’t shown up yet. Ambulances housed closer to the downtown were not available. The vehicle that was available was five miles away and took 16 minutes to get there — 10 minutes longer than state guidelines suggest. The injured Ramos was suffering from a punctured lung; one fractured leg and the other broken in two places; a fractured pelvis and ribs.

The delay never should have happened, says Paramedic Field Chief Patrick Fitzmaurice. “We don’t have enough ambulances,” he says.

The city says it meets state standards by getting a fire engine with a paramedic and advanced life support equipment to the scene within six minutes to stabilize a patient until an ambulance arrives.

“It may take 10 to 15 minutes for an ambulance to show up after that,” said another paramedic, who asked CBS 2 to conceal his identity. ”And, depending on what’s wrong with the person, those minutes are critical.”

He’s one of more than a half dozen paramedics who tells CBS 2 that’s not good enough for people suffering from life-threatening conditions.

A stroke patient, for example, needs to be taken to a stroke center where their condition can be assessed and drugs given to eliminate the deficits they may suffer, he says. A gunshot victim, accident victims with internal injuries “need a surgeon to repair what their problem is,” says the other paramedic. “Time is of the essence.”

An audit by the city’s inspector general highlights the problem. It found that the city’s medical response times did not meet the standards recommended by the National Fire Protection Association. The NFPA says advanced life support equipment should get to a medical emergency within five minutes from the time it is dispatched 90 percent of the time. The inspector general found the city only met that standard 58 percent of the time.

“Taxpayer money for critical services are at the core of what we pay our taxes to do,” Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said. “And to the extent that our office looked at it, it appears that it is being done at a much lower level than what the fire department was claiming.”

Ferguson says the fire department first told his office they use the NFPA standards but then said they did not. And the report criticized the methods the fire department used to calculate its performance, saying, “No one has any idea truly how well it is performing a core mission.”

Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association says. “… peoples’ lives will be imperiled if they don’t get the right ambulances and the right trained personnel to the scene quickly enough.”

And that’s a daily struggle for dispatchers, paramedics like Fitzmaurice say. “There are times they literally just get on the radio and say, ‘I have no ambulances. … Can anybody go?’”

In a written statement, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago disagrees there is an ambulance shortage. “The Fire department takes its calls for medical assistance very seriously and does not have a shortage of ambulances,” he said. Santiago also said the department plans to hire more paramedics this year, “after a temporary delay due to our updating testing requirements.”

“We are fully staffed every day with a mix of paramedics working straight time and overtime, the majority of which is voluntary. This allows us to respond quickly to start care and transport patients,” he says. In response to questions, a spokesman said the department would hire enough paramedics to reduce the $7 million it had to pay in overtime last year.

And the department is already tracking the response times of ALS ambulances to see how they can be utilized more efficiently and whether they need to move the headquarters for some of them to meet increased demands.

This from Bill Post:

This is a problem that most of us have known about for a while already however the ALS Engines and Trucks have been arriving on the scene much sooner which is the reason for the ALS fire company program. If you look at the video and the story you will see that one of the EMS field supervisors was willing to go on camera to confirm the story. That is unusual as he is an employee of the CFD . If you’ll notice the second CFD employee in the report chose not to be identified.

thanks Dan & Bill

Tags: ambulance response times, ambulance shortage in Chicago, Better Government Association, Chicago Fire Department, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, National Fire Protection Association, Pam Zekman, Paramedic Field Chief Patrick Fitzmaurice

Sprinkler proposition for new Illinois homes

Jun 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | Comments off

This article from NBC Chicago discusses fire chief support for the residential sprinkler proposal by State Fire Marshal Larry Matkaitis:

Illinois fire chiefs praised the state fire marshal Friday for a new home sprinkler initiative which many said was a big step toward a safer state.

Fire Marshal Larry Matkaitis filed the new state code with the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules in Springfield. Among its provisions is a requirement for fire sprinklers in all new single family homes.

“We believe it’s the right time,” said Michael Falese, chief of the Bartlett Fire Department and President of the Illinois Fire Chief’s Association. “The sprinkler initiative in homes is aimed at the preservation of life.”

State Fire Marshal Wants Sprinklers in Single-Family Homes

In some communities it’s a fact of life. Already, 91 jurisdictions require fire sprinklers in new homes, one of the highest concentrations in the country. If adopted, Illinois would be the third state, after California and Maryland, to mandate residential sprinklers. And if it sounds like a tough sell, Falese said the fire service has seen it before.

“If you go back 30 years, a lot of individuals and organizations opposed smoke detectors,” he said.

In north suburban Lake Zurich, fire marshal MIke McNally of the Countryside Fire Prevention District pointed to baseball-sized white plates in the ceiling of a gleaming new home as examples of the type of sprinkler which residents of his district have welcomed as a fact of life since Long Grove became the first Illinois community to mandate sprinklers in 1988.

“Our experience has been very good,” McNally said. “We have over 1600 residences in our district that are protected by sprinklers.

“A typical living room, a typical bedroom, can flash over,” he said. “In other words, the temperature in that room will go up to 1,600 degrees in 2 to 3 minutes.”

The entire article with video is HERE.

The following excerpts come from another sprinkler related article from NBC Chicago,:

After 12 years with the same state fire code, Illinois Fire Marshal Larry Matkaitis says it’s time for an update.

And the one he’s proposing is a big one: a first-ever requirement for fire sprinklers in all new single-family homes, including those built in Chicago.

“As far as I’m concerned, everyone in Illinois deserves safe housing,” Matkaitis told NBC Chicago on Thursday. “Every state fire marshal in the country is trying to do the same thing that I am, for the same reason.”

The new move will do nothing to soften what is already a testy relationship between Matkaitis and the City of Chicago. The city insists, under home rule authority, it doesn’t have to follow the state fire code at all. The largest sticking point: the state’s contention that legacy residential high-rises in Chicago must install fire sprinklers, which building owners and even the city contend would be prohibitively expensive.

Matkaitis has plenty of company. When six people died in a fire in the Cook County Administration Building in October of 2003, an investigative commission headed by former FEMA director James Lee Witt concluded a major contributing factor was Chicago’s refusal to follow the state code on the fire sprinkler issue.

“The thing of it is, if we don’t start today, then it will never get done,” Witt said in his report.

It never was done. Nearly 10 years later, Chicago requires sprinklers only in new residential high-rises. Pre-1975 buildings are grandfathered and are not required to retrofit sprinkler systems.

“The statute applies all over the State of Illinois, whether it’s Chicago or Cairo,” Matkaitis said. “I want cooperation from everybody to save lives and property. Remember that. Save lives and property. That’s the only thing that I do.”

The current code, known as NFPA 101, dates to 2000. It was written by the National Fire Protection Association, as was the new 2012 version, which Matkaitis will submit for state adoption on Friday.

“There’s no question that residential high-rises should have sprinklers,” says NFPA President James Shannon. “Where sprinklers are involved, the chance that somebody’s going to die in a fire in one of those buildings goes down dramatically.”

But Chicago wants no part of it. Building owners say retrofit of older buildings would cost millions. Condo boards balk at the expense. And after the County Building fire, amid calls for tough sprinkler ordinances, the City Council punted, requiring instead that building owners only submit so-called Life Safety Evaluations of various fire parameters.

Even the deadlines in that ordinance have been repeatedly extended, and the city’s ability to levy fines has been largely ignored.

“The City of Chicago’s position is that our life safety code is equal to, or greater than the state’s adopted fire code,” said Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago. “These codes that they’re coming up with, are they reasonable and are they necessary? At this time, we find them not necessary.”

Santiago insists even with the lack of sprinkler requirements, Chicago’s Life Safety Evaluations hold building owners to a tough standard.

“There’s a lot of things,” he said. “Smoke detectors, two way communications, automatic door locking. You go through a series of points and that gets you up to speed. And then we will go ahead and say if you are within our code, if you pass, yes or no.”

Matkaitis calls the Chicago code deficient to NFPA 101, and he insists the city is on legal quicksand when it claims home rule authority to ignore the state law.

“The fire investigations statute which was written in 1909 specifically wrote out home rule,” he said. “Home rule doesn’t apply.”

Reminded that Chicago insists that it does, Matkaitis bristled.

ronically, amid the debate, NFPA was holding its annual convention this week at Chicago’s sprawling McCormick Place, a previous incarnation of which burned to the ground in a spectacular extra-alarm fire in 1967. The building lacked automatic fire sprinklers.

At the convention Thursday, Shannon, the NFPA President, said his organization’s codes are written by hundreds of fire professionals from around the country. And he called deaths in non-sprinklered buildings “needless.”

“Chicago should be the leader on this,” he said. “This is probably the greatest architectural city in America. These are great buildings. They should be protected. But more importantly, the people who live in them should be protected.”