Fire Chief: We need more staff

STAFFORD — The county's fire chief made his long-anticipated appearance before the Stafford County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and addressed many of the allegations made toward his department in recent weeks.

Chief Rob Brown, who was hired as Stafford's first fire chief more than two years ago, was given the task to integrate both a career firefighting staff with the all-volunteer staff.

Volunteers held a May 12 meeting where only volunteers were permitted to speak about issues and conditions facing the department as a whole. Many of the volunteers said the lack of training, recruitment of staff and the lack of a retirement system, was forcing dedicated fire fighters away from Stafford.

“Everything that we try and do is focus on eight minutes or less, 90 percent of the time,” said Brown.

Brown said that is the national standard in which his department strives to respond to each emergency in the county. Many pointed out that rescue workers have less than eight minutes to reach a heart-attack patient before it is too late.

“It’s not the gold standard, it’s the national bronze standard, and that is what we are aiming to achieve,” said Brown.

Brown took his time and meticulously addressed each issue that was brought up at last month’s volunteer meeting, where four Stafford supervisors and County Administrator Anthony Romanello were present.

Brown was not invited to that meeting.

The chief countered a claim that individual fire stations could not recruit their own volunteer members, and said the fire department has a recruiting manager on staff that is able to assist in the process “to ensure we get the best candidates possible,” said Brown.

Brown admitted the loss of some applicants’ information, saying there was a water leak in his offices and the records were destroyed.

“The only way to improve response time is to get people back into the stations and get them staffed,” said Brown.

The chief said staffing the stations has been a challenge because the agency competes heavily with other employers in the area, and because the board of supervisors cut a program in local high schools designed to recruit local talent.

Staffing the daytime shifts is a challenge, and a majority of career staff members usually work those shifts. Career or volunteer, Brown said his department needs more staff.

In the audience sitting behind Brown were more than 20 members of a local firefighters union, but the chief said that he was not a member of any union and they were not there to support him.

“The only people who need to stand behind me are the fire and rescue people in the county,” said Brown.

Supervisor Paul Milde, R-Aquia, said that for too long the mentality in the department has been one of “us versus them,” meaning career staff against volunteer staff.

“We seem to be increasing the size of the career staff at an astronomical rate,” said Milde.

Milde said he has long supported the controversial Length of Service Awards Program, or LOSAP. The initiative would give volunteer firefighters who have reached retirement age $10 a month for each month a volunteer worked, under the current plan. If a volunteer worked for 25 years he or she would receive $250 per month as a retirement bonus from the county.

Brown said he has always been a supporter of LOSAP, but has not initiated the practice due to funding shortfalls.

Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer, R-Garrisonville, said that the more than $350,000 that would go to fund LOSAP would be better used to pay career firefighters overtime, and to better improve response times in the county. He went on to call the negative allegations made about Brown both personal and unprofessional.

“How does LOSAP get you closer to eight minutes 90 percent of the time?” asked Dudenhefer.

Brown responded by saying there was no way to answer the question until the program was in place. However, the chief did say he would like to see LOSAP used more of a retention tool than a recruitment tool.

Currently the county offers a break on personal property taxes, the ability to forgo purchasing a county windshield decal, equipment and training as perks for its firefighters.

Firefighters also claimed the chief was forcing the volunteer stations to paint vehicles and equipment purchased with volunteer’s funds — not county tax dollars — the official career staff color of white and red.

“I don’t care what color the fire trucks are…there is no magic in the color, green fire trucks put out fires too,” said Brown.

Brown said painting the vehicles a standard color would make them more interchangeable in the event an older piece of equipment needs to be moved to a station that receives fewer calls.

Supervisor George Schwartz, D-Falmouth, said residents would be better served if each station had the same color vehicles.

“The public needs to know when they see a piece of fire equipment go by, they need to know where it’s coming from. We need uniformity,” said Schwartz.

At the end of his time Brown reminded the board that career EMS staff are currently responding to 85 to 95 percent of all calls in the county, due to the volunteer stations not being fully staffed.

“We couldn’t go out and replace the volunteers with all career staff if we wanted to?” asked Milde.

“I can’t answer that,” said Brown. “You all are the ones with the purse.”