NORFOLK FIRE DIVISION ANNUAL REPORT 2008 OPERATIONS BUREAU It was a challenging year for the Operations Bureau. Fire personnel responded to 2,150 emergency calls. This call load along with maintaining the operational readiness of our staff, equipment, and facilities made for a very busy year. SPECIALIZED TRAINING IN 2008 All paid and reserve staff participated in the annual Multiple Company Night Drill. Mutual aid towns Madison, Battle Creek, and Hadar also participated. The 2008 drill was a hostage situation at a school with multiple causalities. Other participants in the drill were LifeNet, American Red Cross, Region 11 Emergency Management, Elkhorn/Logan Valley Health Department and Faith Regional Health Services. Faith Regional Medical Explorers also participated as patients. We continued with our training program of bringing in off-duty staff to cover first line calls while the on-duty shift trains. This program allows paid staff to receive three hours of uninterrupted training each month. This monthly training is centered on drills taking several hours to complete and/or drills requiring the shift to train as a unit. Paramedic refresher training was conducted through Northeast Community College. All paramedics received 24 hours of annual refresher training. This training is mandatory for maintaining a paramedic license. Two staff officers attended a two day class on preparing our department for a line of duty death. Two staff members attended a 12 hour course on the Art of Reading Smoke and one staff member took a two day course on Technical Rope Rescue.
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NORFOLK FIRE DIVISION ANNUAL
REPORT
2008
OPERATIONS BUREAU
It was a challenging year for the Operations
Bureau. Fire personnel responded to 2,150
emergency calls. This call load along with
maintaining the operational readiness of our
staff, equipment, and facilities made for a very
busy year.
SPECIALIZED TRAINING IN 2008
All paid and reserve staff participated in the
annual Multiple Company Night Drill. Mutual
aid towns Madison, Battle Creek, and Hadar
also participated. The 2008 drill was a hostage
situation at a school with multiple causalities.
Other participants in the drill were LifeNet,
American Red Cross, Region 11 Emergency
Management, Elkhorn/Logan Valley Health
Department and Faith Regional Health Services.
Faith Regional Medical Explorers also
participated as patients.
We continued with our training program of
bringing in off-duty staff to cover first line calls
while the on-duty shift trains. This program
allows paid staff to receive three hours of
uninterrupted training each month. This
monthly training is centered on drills taking
several hours to complete and/or drills
requiring the shift to train as a unit.
Paramedic refresher training was conducted
through Northeast Community College. All
paramedics received 24 hours of annual
refresher training. This training is mandatory
for maintaining a paramedic license.
Two staff officers attended a two day class on
preparing our department for a line of duty
death. Two staff members attended a 12 hour
course on the Art of Reading Smoke and one
staff member took a two day course on
Technical Rope Rescue.
NORFOLK FIRE DIVISION ANNUAL
REPORT
2008
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TRAINING
Monthly training was conducted on hazardous
materials. Staff members attended an 8 hour
course on HazMat standards NFPA 472, an 80
hour HazMat Technician course, a 24 hour
HazMat refresher course and a 3 hour course
on gas pipe line awareness.
In 2008 members of our Hazardous Materials
Team were asked to present decontamination
classes to regional hospitals. The classes were
presented to six different hospitals, focusing on
mass casualty and emergency decontamination
of self reporting victims.
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
Emergency medical services continued to be the
most demanding level of service for the
Operations Bureau in 2008. We responded to
1,810 rescue calls, encountering 2,061 patients.
The division was staffed with 26 paramedics, 7
EMTs and 27 Reserve fire fighters in 2008.
The types of run responses made by the rescue
units are reflected on graph.
In 2008 all paramedics were taught how to use
a new piece of equipment called the EZ-IO. The
EZ-IO is a life-saving device used to establish a
fluid or medication line directly into a patient’s
bone marrow in critical situations where the
patient’s veins have either collapsed or
otherwise not accessible by a typical
intravenous needle. Essentially, a battery-
powered drill is affixed with a needle which is
drilled through the bone and introduced into
the bone marrow which contains a network of
venous sinusoids. This allows access to a
patient’s central circulatory system in critical
cases where fluid replacement and/or
medication administration are paramount.
NORFOLK FIRE DIVISION ANNUAL
REPORT
2008
SINGLE POINT ENTRY FOR FIRE AND EMS
REPORTS
The Norfolk Fire Division is utilizing Image
Trend software for Fire and Emergency
Medical Service (EMS) incident reporting.
The program is Internet based and links two
report types, resulting in single data entry.
The process has been successful from field
entry of incident data by the responders, to
storage of the data on our host server, to
electronic reporting of the respective data
to the State of Nebraska Health and Human
Services and Fire Marshal’s office, as
statutorily required.
On April 15, the Norfolk Fire Division began
using Image Trend’s Fire Bridge (Norfolk
Bridge trial software) to collect data for the
National Fire Incident Reporting System
(NFIRS). Startup was smooth and no
redundancy on our prior program was
necessary. We successfully downloaded the
first data from Image Trend software to the
Nebraska Fire Marshal’s office and have
continued without complications.
In order to utilize the Field Bridge for EMS
reporting, our Information Management
staff made the necessary secure wireless
connections available in both stations and
while in the field.
On May 12, the Norfolk Fire Division began
EMS reporting on Image Trend’s Norfolk
Bridge trial software. We continue to utilize
the Field Bridge for data entry and post
each run to the Norfolk Bridge. After the
EMS run is posted to the Norfolk Bridge it is
then associated to a NFIRS report and
completed. The data elements common to
the EMS report are transferred into the
NFIRS report, achieving true single point
entry of data.
Currently we are posting ENARSIS
(ambulance reports) in weekly batches.
Once runs are posted our ambulance billing
can be done off the ENARSIS site.
Image Trend’s software accomplished the
combined emergency medical services and
fire incident reporting the Nebraska fire
service has long sought. Norfolk took the
lead in this endeavor becoming the first in
the state to reach the goal of single point
data entry. They continue to add features
to this software as part of the ongoing
expansion process. Among other things a
fire inspection module is currently being
developed and will be implemented when
available. We look forward to working with
the Department of Health and Human
Services and the State Fire Marshal’s Office
in developing new cutting edge software for
the fire service.
NEW EQUIPMENT PLACED IN
SERVICE IN 2008
Two new pieces of equipment were added to
the fleet in 2008. They were a Zodiac Boat and
a 4x4 ATV.
NORFOLK FIRE DIVISION ANNUAL
REPORT
2008
The ATV is the property of the Nebraska State
Fire Marshal’s Office; however, it is stored at
our main station. In exchange, it is available for