Fresno Fire Department's Tactics and Strategies For Firefighting With Fewer Resources

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Established is 1877, the Fresno Fire Department is one of the oldest departments in the United States. In order to meet the changing demands of the city and fire districts, Fresno Fire strives to be a forward-looking, progressive organization. The main priority of Fresno Fire is making sure that safety and efficiency are number one, even when budgets become smaller.

The Fresno Fire Department's core values include:

Teamwork
Train for excellence
Leave it better than you found it
Everyone goes home safe

Trust
Treat others the way we want to be treated
Do the right thing
Walk the talk

Commitment
United in our Mission
Everyone plays an important role
Our work represents us

Like many other agencies in the United States, the Fresno Fire Department faced budget cuts in 2009 and 2010 that impacted the amount of resources available to them.  In response to this they implemented a new plan of action and training called "Tactics and Strategies for the New Deployment" which focuses on safely and effectively fighting fires with fewer resources.

"Up until June of 2009, Fresno Fire Department would have about 30 companies in service everyday. As of January 1 of this year, that's now dropped to about 26 companies per day. So, we had to come back and take some of our company officers and do some training with them to get them to start thinking about the first 10 minutes or so of the fire," stated Deputy Chief Mike Despain, Training Officer for the Fresno Fire Department.

Those first 10 minutes are crucial to sizing up a fire. Since help may be farther away than it used to be, the rules have changed. Part of Fresno Fire's revised assessment includes language intended to speed up response. Deputy Chief Despain explained, "When an officer first gets on scene, we have a term called 'working fire' and they'll use that term, and once that term gets used, it automatically starts a couple of things happening, that in the past, we would wait for the Chief Officer or Battalion Chief maybe to get on scene, and assess it."

With less personnel, the main focus of Fresno Fire's new plan is the safety of firefighters and the public. "Everyone wants to be on the end of the hose line. Everyone wants to be in there fighting the fire or doing the vent job, but really, we are trying to emphasize how important one's role is on the incident and how important it is to get a big picture of what has transpired on the incident," remarked Captain Carl Delap, Fresno Fire Department's Assistant Training Officer.

"Our mission is to save lives and reduce the amount of property damage, but some of it is going to happen, and so, we really emphasize to them the importance of firefighter safety," added Deputy Chief Despain. "Once the life safety component has been taken out of the equation, to really back up and think about what we were going to do."

Taking in the big picture is what Fresno hopes will allow them to be more effective for their community while resources become more strained.   Fresno Fire Department's plan and training have become a model for other agencies across the United States facing similar staffing and budget cuts.


Author:William Leatherman - Video, Renee Marquart - Text